Burgh

Burgh, bur′ō, n. the Scotch word corresponding to the English Borough.—ns. Burg (same as Borough); Burg′age, a system of tenure where the king or other person is lord of an ancient borough, city, or town, by which the citizens hold their lands or tenements, for a certain annual rent; Burgess (bur′jes), Bur′gher, an inhabitant of a borough: a citizen or freeman: a magistrate of certain towns: one able to take the usual burgesses' oath (see Antiburgher).—adj. Bur′ghal, relating to a burgh.—n. Burg′omaster, the chief magistrate of a German or a Dutch borough, answering to the English term mayor.—Burgh of barony, a corporation consisting of the inhabitants of a determinate tract of land within the barony, and municipally governed by magistrates and a council whose election is either vested in the baron superior of the district, or vested in the inhabitants themselves; Burgh of regality, a burgh of barony, spiritual or temporal, enfranchised by crown charter, with regal or exclusive criminal jurisdiction within their own territories.—Parliamentary burgh, one like Paisley, Greenock, Leith, whose boundaries, as first fixed in 1832, were adopted for municipal purposes, with regard to which they stand practically in the same position as royal burghs; Police burgh, a burgh constituted by the sheriff for purposes of improvement and police, the local authority being the police commissioners; Royal burgh, a corporate body deriving its existence, constitution, and rights from a royal charter, such being either actual and express, or presumed to have existed.