MAYOR, in modern times the title of a municipal officer who discharges judicial and administrative functions. The French form of the word is maire. In Germany the corresponding title is burgermeister, in Italy podesth, in Spain alcalde and in Scotland provost. "Mayor" had originally a much wider significance. Among the nations which arose on the ruins of the Roman empire of the West and made use of Latin as their official and legal Ian guage, major and the Low Latin feminine maiorissa were con venient terms to describe important officials of both sexes who had the superintendence of others. So the male officer who gov erned the king's household would be the major demos. In the households of the Frankish kings of the Merovingian line, the major domus, who was also variously known as the gubernator, rector, moderator or praefectus palatii, was so great an officer that he ended by evicting his master. He was the "mayor of the palace" (q.v.). Beside the major domus (the major-domo), there were other officers who were maiores, the maior cubiculi, mayor of the bedchamber, and major equorum, mayor of the hcrse.
A word which could be applied so easily and in so many cir cumstances was certain to be widely used, and the post-Augustine, majorjnus, "one of the larger kind," was the origin of the mediaeval Spanish merinus, who in Castilian is the merino, and sometimes the merino mayor, or chief merino, a judicial and ad ministrative officer of the king's. The gregum merinus was the superintendent of the flocks of the corporation of sheep-owners called the mesta, whence the sheep, and then the wool, have come to be known as merino—a word identical in origin with the municipal title of mayor.
In England the chief officers of the boroughs down to the iith century were the reeves, sometimes called port reeves. The mayor appears in the 12th century, at the period when municipal life is developing rapidly (see BOROUGH), as the elected head of the town government. He held office alongside of the reeves (or bailiffs or, in London, sheriffs), whose duties were first to the king, as the mayor's chief duty was to the community of the borough. London obtained a mayor in 1191, and nine other
boroughs had mayors by the end of John's reign. By the middle of the 13th century the practice was general.
A mayor is now in England and America the official head of a municipal government. In Great Britain the Municipal Cor porations Act, 1882, regulates the election of the mayor. He is to be a fit person elected annually on Nov. 9 by the council of the borough from among the aldermen or councillors or per sons qualified to be such. His term of office is one year, but he is eligible for re-election. He may appoint a deputy to act during illness or absence, and such deputy must be either an alderman or councillor. A mayor who is absent from the borough for more than two months becomes disqualified and vacates his office. A mayor is ex officio during his year of office and the next year a justice of the peace for the borough. He receives such remunera tion as the council thinks reasonable. The office of mayor in an English borough does not entail any important administrative duties. It is regarded as an honour conferred for past services.
The mayors of certain cities in the British isles (London, York, Dublin) have acquired by prescription the prefix of "lord." In the case of London it seems to date from 154o. It has also been conferred during the closing years of the 19th century by letters patent on other cities—Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Cardiff, Bradford, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Belfast, Cork. In 1910 it was granted to Norwich; and in 1928 to Nottingham, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent and Portsmouth. The title "right honourable" is a distinction conferred only upon the lord mayors of London, York, Belfast, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide and upon the lord provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow.