Definition
An alderman is an elected or appointed member of the governing body of a municipal corporation — typically a city or incorporated town — who serves in a legislative, and sometimes quasi-judicial or administrative, capacity. Aldermen historically constituted a council or board subordinate to, and associated with, the mayor, exercising collective authority over local ordinances, taxation, and civic administration.
In American cities, the aldermanic body has generally functioned as a local legislature, analogous to a city council, with limited judicial powers in some jurisdictions. In English law, aldermen served as associates to the chief civil magistrate of a corporate town, carrying both civic dignity and administrative authority. The modern American city council member is the functional successor to the alderman in most jurisdictions where the title has been retired.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A member of a municipal legislative body in a city or town.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A senior or superior; a person of rank or dignity (obsolete). One of a board or body of municipal officers next in order to the mayor and having a legislative function, with some individual magisterial and administrative authority.
The common and legal definitions are unusually close for this term, but there is one gap worth noting: ordinary usage treats "alderman" as purely legislative, while the legal sources confirm a historically significant judicial dimension — aldermen in English and some early American jurisdictions exercised magistrate-level judicial functions individually, not merely as part of a collective legislative body. A researcher who reads "alderman" in an older source as simply "council member" may miss that the person had authority to conduct proceedings, issue process, or render judgment.
Core Elements
Burrill identifies the essential character of the office as requiring the holder to be both a citizen and an inhabitant — a qualification that had legal significance in disputes over eligibility and office-holding. The office imports:
1. Membership in the municipal corporation or common council
2. Election by, and representation of, the inhabitants of a ward
3. Authority to act as a civil magistrate (English and some American usage)
4. Legislative function within the governing body of the municipality
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Anglo-Saxon usage: The term encompassed rulers of provinces, earls, and barons in a general sense — any person of superior rank or authority. Not equivalent to the later municipal officer.
English municipal alderman: An associate to the chief civil magistrate of a corporate town, holding both civic dignity and administrative-judicial function within the borough or city corporation.
American municipal alderman: Primarily a member of a local legislative body (the board of aldermen or common council), with limited judicial powers that varied by city charter and state law. Often elected by ward.
Why It Matters in Research
Temporal precision is essential when reading "alderman" in primary sources. The word carried meaningfully different authority depending on the era and jurisdiction. An alderman appearing in an Anglo-Saxon or early medieval English source held what amounted to noble or gubernatorial rank — not a ward representative. An alderman in an 18th or 19th century English borough was a member of the town corporation with quasi-judicial powers. An alderman in a 19th century American city was principally a legislator, though some city charters gave individual aldermen magistrate-level powers, including the ability to issue warrants or conduct hearings.
Researchers working with municipal law materials should check the city's organic act or charter when the exact powers of the aldermanic office are in dispute. The judicial function of aldermen was eroded progressively through the 19th and early 20th centuries in American municipalities as dedicated magistrate and municipal court systems were established.
The office has largely disappeared by name in American cities — most jurisdictions replaced "alderman" with "council member" during the 20th century, partly for gender-neutrality reasons, partly through municipal reorganization. This means that materials from different eras describing the same office may use entirely different titles. Cross-referencing the municipal corporation entry in encyclopedia sources is essential when tracing the history of a specific city's governance structure.
Burrill's note that the office "imports" both citizenship and inhabitancy is a useful doctrinal hook: early litigation over aldermanic eligibility turned on exactly these qualifications, and researchers working on quo warranto proceedings or contested elections in municipal records will find this element directly relevant.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries converge on the dual legislative-judicial character of the office in its mature English and American municipal form, but diverge in emphasis. Black's (both editions) leads with the judicial dimension — calling the alderman "a judicial or administrative magistrate" — and only secondarily identifies the legislative role in American cities. Burrill foregrounds the representative and magisterial functions, adding the citizenship-inhabitancy requirement that the other sources omit. Anderson reaches furthest back, tracing the Anglo-Saxon usage in which virtually all superior officers were "aldermen" in a general sense before the term narrowed to its municipal meaning.
None of the historical dictionaries adequately addresses the decline of the aldermanic judicial function in American cities during the Progressive Era, or the replacement of the title by "council member" in modern practice. Researchers relying solely on these entries may overestimate the judicial authority of 20th century American aldermen and underestimate the legislative-only character of the office as it existed in most American cities by 1900.
Jurisdictional Note
The title and powers of aldermen varied significantly by state and city charter. In some American states the office retained meaningful individual judicial powers well into the 19th century; in others, aldermen were purely legislative from the outset. Several major American cities — including Chicago — retained the aldermanic title and ward-based election structure into the 21st century, while others (New York, Los Angeles) reorganized their councils under different nomenclature entirely. English borough aldermen were formally abolished by the Local Government Act 1972.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Municipal Corporations
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Local Government Officers
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Quo Warranto (for office eligibility disputes)