Now chiefly Hist. [f. LAW sb.1 + MAN; the OE. lahmann was prob. a. ON. laga-, lǫgmann- (nom. -maðr), whence Anglo-Latin lagamannus, lagemannus, by some writers on legal antiquities anglicized as lageman.]
1. OE. Law. a. One whose official duty it was to declare the law. (Kingsley’s use is incorrect.)
a. 1000. Ordin. Dunsætas, c. 3, in Schmid, Gesetze, 360. xii lahmen scylon riht tæcean Wealan and Ænglan, vi Englisce and vi Wylisce.
a. 1200[?]. Laws Edw. Conf., c. 38, ibid. 518. Postea inquirat justicia per lagemannos.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xx. ‘Where is the lawman of the town?’ ‘I was lawman last night, to see such law done as there is left,’ said Pery.
b. In the five Danish boroughs, one of a specified number of magistrates or aldermen (in some cases twelve). (As our knowledge of this class of officials is mainly derived from Domesday, which uses the latinized form lagemannus, the word often appears Hist. as lageman.)
1086. Domesday Bk. (1783), I. 336. In ipsa ciuitate erant .xii. Lageman idest habentes sacam & socam.
1672. Cowell, Interpr., Lageman Homo habens legem, or as we term it, Homo legalis, such as we now call Good men of the Jury.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., 156. Lincoln … in Doomsday-Book accounted … 900 Burgesses, with 12 Lage-men having Sac and Soc.
c. 1818. Britton, Lincolnsh., 796. In the time of the Conqueror, Stamford was governed by the lagemen or aldermen.
1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., IV. 5. Lincoln’s Lawmen kept their statutes.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xxi. 578. York … retained … vestiges of the constitutional government by its lawmen which had existed before the Conquest.
1897. Maitland, Domesday & Beyond, 89. The lawmen of Stamford had sake and soke within their houses.
2. Orkney and Shetland. The president of the supreme court in the Orkney and the Shetland Islands respectively. Also lawman-general. (The Scandinavian form lagman occurs in historical use.)
1554. trans. Diploma Bp. Orkney, in Bannatyne Cl. Misc., III. (1855), 84. The seill of … Henrie Randale lawman [orig. legiferi].
1576. in Oppress. Orkney & Zetld. (1859), 36. The electione of Nichole Ayth … to the office of Lawman-generale of all Zetland. Ibid., 37. Quhilk the said Lawman keipit and observit as ane just bismeyre all his dayis.
1805. Barry, Orkney, 217. The President, or principal person in the Lawting, was named the Great Foud or Lagman.
1892. G. Goudie, in Proc. Soc. Ant. Scotl., XXVI. 190. A functionary termed the ‘Lawman’ held the important office of legal adviser and judge of assize, and had generally the superintendence of the framing and interpretation of the law…. The office of Lawman was apparently elective.
3. A man of law, lawyer. Obs. exc. as nonce-wd.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 87. He hes gart seik in mony sindrie land … Leichis, lawmen, and mony vther mo.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Log., Ded. The study of the law,… by these lawmens report, is so hard.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccxxvii. (1714), 247. Nothing Commoner in Times of Danger than for Law-Men to leave their Masters.
1830. J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1858), II. 177. Mr. Howard the artist, who resides … with his brother, I think, who is a lawman.
