Burgess
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
a magistrate of a borough; generally, the chief officer of the corporation, who performs, within the borough, the same kind of duties which a mayor does ina city. In England the word is sometimes applied to all the inhabitants of ‘a borough, who are called burgesses; ‘sometimes it signifies the representatives of a borough in parliament.