Headborough

In English law, the term headborough, head-borough, borough-head, or borrowhead, referred historically to the head of the legal, administrative or territorial unit known as a tithing (and sometimes, particularly in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, as a borgh, borow, or borough). In the Anglo-Saxon system of frankpledge, or frith-borh, the headborough presided over the borhsmen in his jurisdiction, who in turn presided over the local tithingmen. The office was rendered in Latin documents as capitalis plegius or decennarius.