A member of a council, esp. of that of a corporate town; a councillor. Obs. exc. Hist.
1659. W. Sheppard, Corporations, etc. 57. To name the present Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, Councel-men, and Officers.
1881. T. E. Bridgett, Hist. Holy Eucharist Gt. Brit., II. 281. The bailiffs and councilmen were summoned to appear personally at Rome.
Common-councilman. A member of a common council; a common councillor. Now used of the city of London, and common in U.S.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Fall of Mortimer, I. i. I, who am no common-council-man.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 73, ¶ 17. As the Common-Council-Men of the said Ward shall think fit.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 127. [Vanity] qualifies the common councilman to dictate measures of state.
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar, ii. (1844), 79. As the stout reforming Common-Councilman said to the spare conservative Alderman.
1873. Ruskin, in Contemp. Rev., XXI. 934. Mr. Greg’s … philosophy of Expenditure was expressed with great precision by the Common Councilmen of New York.
Hence Councilmanic a. (U.S.)
1881. Philadelphia Record, No. 3457. 1. Charges … made by a councilmanic sub-committee.
