Overseer
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
The style or title of several classes of public officers whose duties involve continuous general superintendence of routine affairs. Overseersof high-ways, or Toads. In several of the states, the general charge of construction and repair of highways is devolved upon a distinct board of officers, termed the overseers. In other states, a board of about the same powers and duties is known as commissioners of highways. The term overseer of a public road, in Tenn. Code, § 1223, requiring signs to be put up by such overseer at railroad crossings, does not include a turnpike company. Louisville, &c.
Turnpike Co. v. State, 3 He.isk. 129.
Overseers of the poor, in England, are public officers originally created by the 43 Eliz. ch. 2, to provide for the poor of every parish, and are sometimes two, three, or four, according to the extent of parishes. Church-wardens, by this statute, are called overseers of the poor, and they join with ness of their own, usually leave the care of the poor to the overseers only, though anciently they were the sole overseers of the poor. {Dalt. ch. 27; Wood Inst. 9.3.) Jacob, In the United States, overseers of the poor are public officers and liable to indictment, at common law, for any neglect of their duties or abuse of their powers; as for cruel treatment of paupers under their charge State v. Hawkins, 77 JV.
C. 494.