Ansgar, the Staller, who was Portreeve the year of Hastings, appears to have been, like King Harold, of Danish descent.
The bishop, himself an alderman, thePortreeve and the burghers, French and English, are addressed "friendly.
And Sker being outside either parish, Crowner Bowles, on receipt of a guinea, swore down the Portreeve to his very vamps.
Though Moudlin church is more handy for Sker, and the noble Portreeve of Kenfig stood upon his right to it, still there were stronger reasons why old Newton should have the preference.
Other names we do not know, unless it be that of Esegar, Harold's staller and portreeve of London, the hero of a doubtful story of negotiations with the approaching enemy.
The reigns of Richard and John mark the date in our municipal history at which towns began to acquire the right of electing their own chief magistrate, the Portreeve or Mayor, who had till then been a nominee of the crown.
When the Confessor sends a writ to London he addresses it to the bishop, portreeve and burh-thegns.
In 1689 it was determined that the right of election lay in the lords of the borough, who were liable to be chosen portreeve thereof, and the householders of the same not receiving alms.
In like manner the Marshal hanged John Payne, the mayor or portreeve of St. Ives, on a gallows erected in the middle of that town, whose arms are still to be seen in one of the fore seats in that church, viz.
This time it was vested in theportreeve and lord of the manor and the inhabitants paying scot and lot.
Mr. Round has recently shown that the Portreeve disappeared in the Sheriff or Vicecomes of London and Middlesex.
The office of Portreeve probably goes back nearly to the first settlement of the English.
The Portreeve certainly represented the king, and was responsible for the farm of the city.
Alsie was the name of the Portreeve to whom the Confessor addressed a charter: it is interesting that Ivy Lane (it is Dr.
When William the Conqueror granted the first charter to London he addressed the bishop and the portreeve--the bishop as the ecclesiastical governor and the portreeve as the representative of the civil power.
Otto Bodrugan in 1320 granted the burgesses the privilege of electing their ownportreeve and controlling the trade of the town.
Irishtown received the privilege of choosing a portreeve independent of Kilkenny.
Kilkenny, the burgesses of Irishtown continuing, however, to elect a portreeve until the passing of the Muncipal Reform Act.
He presumes that he was the grandson of an unidentified Leofstan, but he rejects the view that he was the grandson of Leofstan, Portreeve of London before the Conquest.
How long before the Conquest a portreeve had been appointed and how long after his office was continued we do not know.
It has been a generally received opinion that there was a succession of portreeves until the first appointment of a Mayor, but Mr. Round believes that the title of portreeve disappears after the Conqueror's charter.
The executive officers, the Portreeve and the Bailiffs exercised functions probably as old as the borough itself, and therefore, in almost every instance, to be traced to the freer times preceding the Norman Conquest.
On such occasions the Portreeve completely effaced the Mayor, who is not mentioned by name in connexion with the proceedings.
Portreeve on this occasion; the Common Cryer of the Hundred, Manor, and Borough aforesaid, as assistant to the Bailiff of the Hundred with his staff.
