ometimes this appears to be the title of the senior Bailiff, as
Richard Burgess and Thomas Ouenat are described as Bailiffs in a deed
_circa_ 1230, but in another deed of the same date Burgess is called
'Major' and Ouenat 'Bailiff.'"

In some boroughs the old royal officer, the Portreeve--the title is a
hybrid compounded of the Anglo-Saxon _gerefa_ and the Latin _porta_ (not
_portus_), alluding to the gate, where the markets were held--bore sway.
At Tiverton, which was incorporated in 1614, the offices of Mayor and
Portreeve existed side by side, and down to the year 1790 the latter
exercised the power of summoning certain people to attend the septennial
perambulation of the Town Lake--a stream of water the property of the
inhabitants. On such occasions the Portreeve completely effaced the
Mayor, who is not mentioned by name in connexion with the proceedings.
The following extracts from a record in the Court Leet books of the
proceedings on September 1, 1774, will demonstrate that the celebration,
which took place entirely within the confines of the borough, was a
survival of a state of things anterior to the grant of a charter.

"A procession and survey of the ancient rivulet, watercourse, or town
lake, running from a spring rising near an ash pollard in and at the
head of a certain common called Norwood Common, within the said Hundred,
Manor, and Borough to Coggan's Well near the Market Cross in the town of
Tiverton aforesaid, belonging to the inhabitants of, and others his
Majesty's liege subjects, living, sojourning, and residing in the town
of Tiverton aforesaid, for their sole use and benefit, was made and
taken by Mr. Martin Dunsford (Portreeve), Henry Atkins, Esq. (Steward),
Thomas Warren and Philip Davey (water bailiffs) and the Rev. Mr.
William Wood ... and divers other persons, free suitors, tenants and
inhabitants of the said town, parish, and hundred of Tiverton, by the
order of the honourable Sir Thomas Carew, baronet, Dame Elizabeth Carew
and Edward Colman, Esq., Lords of the Hundred, Manor and Borough
aforesaid, the first day of September in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-four.

"The Portreeve and Free Suitors, having adjourned the Court Baron, which
was this day held, proceeded from the Court or Church House in the
following order:--The Bailiff of the Hundred with his staff and a basket
of cakes; the children of the Charity School and other boys two and two;
the two water