Freemen’s Dictionary and Glossary of Terms
(Old English Trade Descriptions) As a result of a question raised in the Open Forum at the 2012 FEW AGM as to what the difference between a Freeman and a Burgess was, I produced the following paper. To this I have added a dictionary of olden terms relating to civic and trade descriptions for ease of reference. Burgess or Freeman – is there a difference? Some confusion arises out of the use of these two expressions. The terms can be…