brigmaister

1) This is the north-country form of bridgemaster, the term for an officer within a borough who had responsible for raising the money needed to maintain a particular bridge: he may have shared the office with others.

The Brigmaisters of Fosse brig in York are mentioned in 1478 but the office is certainly much older: in 1453, for example, the account rolls of the York chamberlains contain details of money de custodibus pontis Use hoc anno. Occasionally, the northern word is masked when a translator chooses to call the officer a bridge-warden. There were bridge-masters also in Wakefield: 1554 a payn ys layd that the bryge mesters shal se the brege well amendid and repared, and in Whitby, where they were granted the income from a field called Tenter Garth towards the maintenance of their bridge in 1656.

spellings bridgemaster
dates 1453 1478 1554 1656

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