Burgess, or BURGHMER, from the same origin as borough, means, when taken in a general sense, the inhabitant of a burgh, or much the same thing as the word citizen, but has a variety of special meanings, according to local institutions. In almost all parts of Europe, when used in a technical sense, the word means a person who holds some peculiar privilege in a town or municipal corporation. The burgesses of the towns of southern Europe were, and still nominally are, an interesting relic of ancient Roman institutions, existing in contest and rivalry with the institutions of feudalism. The burgess is virtually the civis or citizen of the Roman municipality, with a different name. The European monarchs frequently found it their interest to support the burgesses, as a check on the influence of the feudal aristocracy; and thus was nourished the great system of city communities, which have exercised so important an influence on the fate of the world. See MUNICIPALITY.
In the law of England, a burgess is a member of the corporation of a corporate town, or he may be described as a freeman duly admitted as a member of the corporate body. This privilege was, and to some extent still is, acquired by birth or apprenticeship—that is, by being born of a freeman, or by apprenticeship for seven years within the borough to a freeman. It might also be obtained by gift or purchase. The Municipal Corporation Act of 1835, while abolishing the last-mentioned mode of admission by gift or purchase, expressly reserved the rights of freemen and their families; and it also provided for the making up and preservation of a list of burgesses so admitted, to be called the Freeman's Roll (q.v.). As the law at present stands under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, a burgess (and this includes females) is a person of full age who has occupied a house or other building, and has resided for one year in a borough, and has paid poor and borough rates, and as such has been enrolled in the Burgess Roll (45 and 46 Vict. chap. 50). See BOROUGH, TOWN-COUNCIL.
In the Scots law, the definition of burgess is very similar to the English one above mentioned. But there was this distinction, that a person could always be admitted to the privilege by election of the magistrates of the burgh—the burgesses taking, on the occasion of their admission, a quaint form of oath, in which they profess the religion of the country, and loyalty to the sovereign and to the provost and bailies of the burgh and their officers, and declare, inter alia, that they will 'make concord where discord is, to the utmost of their power.' On taking this oath, and paying the customary dues of admission, the burgess obtained an extract of the act of his admission from the town-clerk. One of the peculiar privileges of a burgess in Scotland—viz. that of his heir having a right of succession to heirship movables, was abolished by the Titles to Land (Scotland) Act, 1868. The admission of burgesses is now regulated by the Act 23 and 24 Vict. chap. 47, which applies to royal burghs, as amended by 39 Vict. chap. 12, which applies to both royal and parliamentary burghs. The last-mentioned statute was intended to assimilate the law of Scotland to some extent to that of England as regards the creation of burgesses. It provided that every person is a burgess who is of full age and who has occupied property within any burgh for a period of three years prior to any term of Whitsunday after 1876, and who during the term of such occupation has been an inhabitant householder within the burgh, and who has paid poor-rates during the period of such occupancy. A female may become a burgess, but not an alien or one who has within 12 months immediately previous to the last term of Whitsunday of the period of his occupation received parochial relief or any charitable allowance.
BURGESS LIST and BURGESS ROLL are lists made under the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835, as amended by 20 and 21
Vict. chap. 50, and 32 and 33 Vict. chap. 55. The overseers of the poor of every parish wholly or in part within any borough are directed to make out an alphabetical list, called 'The Burgess List,' of all persons who may be entitled or qualified to be enrolled on the burgess roll of that year, such list to be printed and made public. This list is afterwards revised by the revising barrister, and the names of those persons allowed, on revision, to remain are then transferred to the Burgess Roll, which is copied into a general alphabetical list in a book provided for that purpose by the town-clerk or clerk of the peace, and which book must be completed on or before the 22d of October in every year; every such book being the burgess roll of the burgesses entitled to vote for councillors, assessors, and auditors of the borough. Copies of such burgess roll, so completed, shall be made in writing, or printed for sale.
In Scotland, the list corresponding to the English burgess roll is the Register of Municipal Electors; the 'roll of burgesses' in Scotland being quite different. It is the custom for the magistrates of the more important cities and towns of the United Kingdom to admit persons of distinction, whether residents or strangers, to the position of honorary burgesses, by 'presenting the freedom of the city.' If strangers, such honorary burgesses cannot exercise the municipal franchise or be inducted to the town-council. In 1899, both in Scotland and England, women who had deserved well of the republic were made honorary burgesses.