burgesses
Borough voting members
Burgesses is the plural of burgess, a citizen or freeman of a borough—a town with special trading or self-governing privileges.
The term is historical, appearing in contexts like colonial American government: The House of Burgesses was Virginia's legislative assembly.
A burgess held civic rights and could participate in local governance.
Urban merchant-class inhabitants
- freemenThose no longer enslaved
- guildsCraftsmen's mutual aid societies
- charterFounding organizational document
- townsfolkResidents of a village
merchants · aldermen · privileges · franchises · patricians · manor · feudalism · town walls
Members of a nation
- residentsPeople living somewhere
- townspeopleMunicipal area inhabitants
- communityCollective of connected people
- freeholdersOwners of land absolutely
ratepayers · householders · voters · ward · district · municipal · council · locality
Those acting for others
- delegatesChosen representatives or assigns
- legislatorsElected law-making officials
- parliamentNational legislative assembly
- assemblyConstructing from components
councilmen · members · electorate · constituents · commons · Virginia · colonial · elected
burghers
Urban merchant-class inhabitants
- freemenThose no longer enslaved
- guildsCraftsmen's mutual aid societies
- charterFounding organizational document
townsfolk · merchants · aldermen · privileges · franchises · patricians · manor · feudalism · town walls · self-governance
citizens
Members of a nation
- residentsPeople living somewhere
- townspeopleMunicipal area inhabitants
- communityCollective of connected people
freeholders · ratepayers · householders · voters · ward · district · municipal · council · locality · urban
representatives
Those acting for others
- delegatesChosen representatives or assigns
- legislatorsElected law-making officials
- parliamentNational legislative assembly
assembly · councilmen · members · electorate · constituents · commons · Virginia · colonial · elected · suffrage
- social classesupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, nobles
- Colonial VirginiaJamestown, James River, tobacco cultivation, Powhatan, Pocahontas
- medieval governancefeudal hierarchy, vassalage, lordship, commons, royal authority
- Tudor GovernmentHouse of Commons, House of Lords, Star Chamber, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII
- English historyNorman Conquest, Domesday Book, Magna Carta, King Alfred, Henry VIII
- legislationbills, acts, laws, statutes, bill
burgessesdisenfranchised
Deprived of voting rights
subjects · non-citizens · peers · bishops · abbots
- Burgess ShaleCambrian lagerstätte in Canada
- Burgess Meredith