BOROUGH, in its original Saxon borge, or borgh, is by some supposed to have been primarily meant of a tithing or company consisting of ten families, who were bound and combined together as each others pledge. Afterwards, as Versteegan informs us, borough came to signify a town that had something of a wall or inclosure about it: so that all places which among our ancestors, had the denomination borough, were one way or other fenced or fortified. But, in latter times, the same appellation was also bestowed on several of the villae insigniores, or country towns of more than ordinary note, though not walled.
The ancient Saxons, according to Spelman, gave the name burgh to those called, in other countries, cities. But divers canons being made for removing the
episcopal fees from villages and small towns to the chief cities, the name city became attributed to episcopal towns, and that of borough retained to all the rest; though these too had the appearance of cities, as being governed by their mayors, and having laws of their own making, and sending representatives to parliament, and being fortified with a wall and castle, and the like.