the chief magistrate of a city or town, chosen annually out of the aldermen. The word, anciently wrote meyr, comes from the British miri, i.e. eycyldfure, or from the old English miret, viz. poteflar, and not from the Latin major. King Richard I. in 1189, changed the bailiff of London into a mayor, and from that example King John made the bailiff of King's Lynn a mayor anno 1204. Though the famous city of Norwich obtained not this title for its chief magistrate till the seventh year of King Henry V. anno 1419; since which there are few towns of note but have had a mayor appointed for government.

Mayors of corporations are justices of peace pro tempore, and they are mentioned in several statutes; but no person shall bear any office of magistracy concerning the government of any town, corporation, &c., who hath not received the sacrament according to the church of England within one year before his election, and who shall not take the oaths of supremacy, &c.

If any person intrudes into the office of mayor, a quo warranto lies against him, upon which he shall not only be ousted, but fined. And no mayor, or person holding an annual office in a corporation for one year, is to be elected into the same office for the next; in this case, persons obstructing the choice of a successor are subject to real penalty. Where the mayor of a corporation is not chosen on the day appointed by charter, the next officer in place shall the day after hold a court and elect one; and if there be a default or omission that way, the electors may be compelled to choose a mayor, by a writ of mandamus out of the king's bench. Mayors, or other magistrates of a corporation, who shall voluntarily absent themselves on the day of election, are liable to be imprisoned, and disqualified from holding any office in the corporation.

Mayor's Courts. To the lord mayor and city of London belong several courts of judicature. The highest and most ancient is that called the hustings, defined to secure the laws, rights, franchises, and customs of the city. The second is a court of request, or of conscience; of which before. The third is the court of the lord mayor and aldermen, where also the sheriffs sit; to which may be added two courts of sheriffs, and the court of the city orphans, whereof the lord mayor and aldermen have the custody. Also the court of common council, which is a court or assembly, wherein are made all by-laws which bind the citizens of London. It consists, like the parliament, of two houses: an upper, consisting of the lord mayor and aldermen; and a lower, of a number of common council men, chose by the several wards as representatives. Maza tatives of the body of the citizens. In the court of common council are made laws for the advancement of trade, and committees yearly appointed, &c. But acts made by them are to have the assent of the lord mayor and aldermen, by stat. 11 Geo. I. Also the chamberlain's court, where every thing relating to the rents and revenues of the city, as also the affairs of servants, &c. are transacted. Lastly, To the lord mayor belong the courts of coroner and of echeator; another court for the conservation of the river Thames; another of goal-delivery, held usually eight times a-year, at the Old Bailey, for the trial of criminals, whereof the lord mayor is himself the chief judge. There are other courts called wardmotes or meetings of the wards; and courts of halymote or assemblies of the several guilds and fraternities.