Borough

A town; a town of note or importance.

Cowell.

An ancient town.

Littleton § 164.

A town which sends burgesses to parliament, whether corporate or not.

1 Bla. Com. 115; Whishaw.

A corporate town that is not a city.

1 M. & G. 1; Cowell.

In its more modern English acceptation, it denotes a town or city organized for purposes of government.

3 Steph. Com. (11th ed.) 33.

See Town. It is impossible to reconcile the meanings of this word given by the various authors cited, except upon the supposition of a change of requirements necessary to constitute a borough at different periods. The only essential circumstance which underlies all the meanings given would seem to be that of a number of citizens bound together for purposes of joint action, varying in the different boroughs, but being either for representation or for municipal government. Many causes, in no two cases quite alike, went to make up the peculiar community which the 13th Century recognized as a borough. The borough community, though a different variety, is not a different genus from that of the other communities with which England of the early Middle Ages was peopled; 2 Holdsw.

Hist. E. L. 257. See Burh; Brit. Borough Charters 1042-1216, by Bolland; Bateson, Borough Customs.

In American Law. In Pennsylvania, the term denotes a political division, organized for municipal purposes; and the same is true of Connecticut and New Jersey. Sav. Bor. L. 4; Southport v. Ogden, 23 Conn. 128; see also Brown v. State, 18 Ohio St. 496; 1 Dill. Mun. Corp. § 41, n. In Scotch Law. A corporation erected by charter from the crown. Bell, Diet.