Obs. exc. Hist. [f. BORROW sb. 3 + HEAD; cf. BORSHOLDER. The fuller form friðborhheved occurs in the (Latin) Laws of Edward the Confessor xx. Writers from the 16th c. onwards have often confounded BORROW sb. 3 with BOROUGH; hence the incorrect form borough-head, commonly adopted in dictionaries.] Originally the head of a friðborh or tithing (see BORROW sb. 3); the word, with its synonyms BORSHOLDER, HEADBOROUGH, afterwards came to denote a parochial officer, now called a Petty Constable.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., I. iii. (1602), 13. Borowhead, Borsholder and Tythingman, bee three severall names of one selfe same office and do signifie The chiefe man of the free pledges within that Borowe or Tything.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 336. The conseruator of peace … In a Tything [is called] a petie Constable, Borsholder, Head-Borough, Third-borough, Boroughhead, Tything-man, or Chiefe pledge.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 121. Tything-man, borsholder, borrowhead, headborough, chief-pledge, or provost.
