By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 85 
others, with a ‘Portreeve’ as the chief municipal officer, but that, the 
inhabitants having been almost swept away by a desolating pesti- 
lence, the exercise of their rights fell into abeyance, and was never 
afterwards resumed. Other particulars are related, but they are 
evidently so distorted a form of the real facts of the case, whatever 
they were, that it is not worth while to repeat them. Possibly 
there may be a glimmering of truth in these local traditions, which 
future research may enable us to interpret more accurately. In our 
‘Portreeve’ we may preserve the name of an officer of some impor- 
tance formerly, though many of the duties once performed by him 
have long fallen into desuetude. At present, and for many years 
past, his duties have been very analogous to those of the Bailiff, 
already described, inasmuch as to him was addressed the precept from 
the Steward of the Lord of the Manor, directing him to summon 
and warn those inhabitants who were appointed to serve on the 
Borough Jury in Court Leet. He had also,—(and in this, the 
duties performed in other cases by the Tythingmen devolved on 
him)—to “deliver into Court a list fairly written out of the Free- 
holders, Free Suitors, Tenants and Resiants within the Borough, 
_ who owed suit and service to, and at, the Court”. No doubt in 
ancient times, like the Anglo-Saxon ‘Portgeréfa,’ from whom the 
name is derived, this officer had in Bradford, as in other small 
towns, to witness all transactions by bargain and sale, and proba- 
bly derived some emolument from the proceeds of tolls and fines 
levied within his district.} | 
For many years one person has been appointed ‘Portreeve and 
Hayward,’ as to one united office. No doubt as buildings increased 
in Bradford, the duties of the last named officer gradually became 
nominal. In the record of Court Leet for 1747, however, the 
offices are distinct, two different persons having been appointed, 
one as the ‘Portreeve’ and the other as the ‘Hayward’ for the 
Borough. 
The ‘Leatruer Szarers and SearcueErs’ had to look after the 
Tanners and Curriers, to see that they exposed no leather for sale 
! On the ‘ Portyeréfa’ or ‘ Portreeve’ who seems originally to have been the 
chief officer of the smaller, and commercial, towns, see Kemble’s ‘Saxons in 
England,’ ii. 173. 
