ALDERMAN, among our Saxon ancestors, was a degree of nobility answering to earl or count at present.
ALDERMAN was also used, in the time of king Edgar, for a judge or justice. Thus we meet with the
Alderney, the titles of Aldermannus totius Anglie, aldermannus regis, comitatus, civitatis, burgi, castelli, hundredi, five wapentacii, et novemdecimorum. According to Spelman, the aldermannus totius Anglie seems to have been the same officer who was afterwards styled capitulis iusticiarius Anglie, or chief-justice of England; the aldermannus regis seems to have been an occasional magistrate, answering to our justice of assize; and the aldermannus comitatus, a magistrate who held a middle rank between what was afterward called the earl and the sheriff; he sat at the trial of causes with the bishop: the latter proceeding according to ecclesiastical law, and the former declaring and expounding the common law of the land.