1. The occupier of a chair of authority; spec. the person who is chosen to preside over a meeting, to conduct its proceedings, and who occupies the chair or seat provided for this function.
1654. Trapp, Comm. Job xxix. 25. I sate chief, and was Chair-man.
1660–1. Pepys, Diary, 22 Jan. To come … to this place … where Sir G. Downing (my late master) was chaireman.
1697. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 254. This day the parliament mett here, the earl of Oxford chairman.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 58. It is the duty of the chairman, immediately on taking the chair, to cause the minutes of the preceding meeting to be read.
b. The member of a corporate body appointed or elected to preside at its meetings, and in general to exercise the chief authority in the conduct of its affairs; the president.
Chairman of Committees: in either House of Parliament the member appointed to preside over it whenever it resolves itself into Committee.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Companies, East India, The directors are twenty-four in number, including the chairman and deputy-chairman.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 291. The committee … on factory employment, of which Mr. Sadler was the mover and chairman.
1887. Morley, Crit. Misc., III. 306. The chairman of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Mod. Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
2. One whose occupation it is to carry persons in chairs or chair-like conveyances; spec. the two men who carried a sedan-chair.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1683/4. A tall Blackamore … in a Green Doublet and Breeches, with a large Chairmans Coat of the same colour. Ibid. (1703), 3942/3. Twenty Chairmen, with Sedans.
1721. Cibber, Lady’s Last St., V. Chair, Chair! (Enter a Chairman) Here: Who calls Chair?
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 113, ¶ 6. Disputing for sixpence with a chairman.
1833. Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 46 § 113. The misbehaviour of coachmen, drivers, chairmen, carters, and porters.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 16. When ladies’ chairmen jostled each other on the pavement.
b. One who wheels a Bath-chair.
1766. Anstey, Bath Guide, i. 115. But soft—my Chairman ’s at the Door.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xvi. A Bath chair-man.
1869. Daily Tel., 18 Aug., 5/5. The invalids … in their Bath chairs. The chairmen … are an honest, genial, hard-working set of fellows.
