BOROUGH

A town po e ed of certadn municipal institutions, of which the name is derived by some from the Saxon word burg, meaning an inclosed place; by others from another word of the same language — borg, meaning pledge, which was applied to some of the a ociations for mutual liability established by the Saxon law. Boroughs, in the sense of the definition above given, must have, in some shape, existed very early in this as well as in other countries; but the origin as well in constitution as in name of the existing municipal system in England can be traced no higher than Saxon times, and the general and connected history of English boroughs does not begin before the Conquest. 1.55 [s. 168]