ignifies contribution towards the building or repairing of castles, or walls, for the defence of a borough or city.

By a law of King Athelstan, the castles and walls of towns were to be repaired, and burgh-bote levied every year within a fortnight after rogation days. No person whatever was exempt from this service; the king himself could not exempt a man from burgh-bote; yet, in after times, exemptions appear to have been frequently granted; insomuch, that, according to Cowell, the word burgh-bote came to be chiefly used to denote not the service, but the liberty or exemption from it.