The Collaborative International Dictionary
Portreeve \Port"reeve`\, n. A port warden.
Wiktionary
n. A port warden.
Wikipedia
A portreeve or port warden is the title of an historical official in England and Wales possessing authority (political, administrative, or fiscal) over a town. The details of the office have fluctuated and evolved considerably over time. The term derives from the word port (which historically meant a market town or walled town, and not specifically a seaport); and the word reeve, meaning a high-ranking supervisory official.
The origins of the position are in the reign of Edward the Elder, who, in order to ensure that taxes were correctly exacted, forbade the conducting of trades outside of a 'port' or duly appointed place for trading, and without the supervision of a portreeve or other trustworthy person. At this time therefore, they had a role as a fiscal supervisor, much like modern customs and revenue officers. William Fitz-Isbell (c.1130–1194), portreeve and sheriff of London (1160–1194), was also called Lord Mayor, Governor, and Viscount London, and was described as financier to the Crown.
By the late Middle Ages portreeves acted as representatives of the people to ensure that their duties to the mayor and community were fulfilled. In some cases (and usually more recently) the role has been combined with that of mayor. Portreeves may also have acted as returning officers at elections.
Contemporary British towns which still nominally have or appoint a portreeve include Laugharne, Carmarthenshire; Ashburton, Devon (the only town in the country where the office is still held by act of parliament); Beccles, Suffolk; Callington, Cornwall (where the name is given to the council chairman); and Yeovil, Somerset.
Usage examples of "portreeve".
On such occasions the Portreeve completely effaced the Mayor, who is not mentioned by name in connexion with the proceedings.
The portreeve asked if we could not stay in the lazaret, and when I shook my head, wethe portreeve, Dorcas, and Iwent there to permit him to argue with the physician in charge, who, as I had predicted, refused to have us.
I heard the sobbing of a woman, and because the portreeve had spoken of a man, assumed that it came from a cell other than the one that held my client.
I had gotten detailed directions from the portreeve, and though we missed our way, it was some time before we realized it, and we began our walk quite cheerfully.
King, greets William, Bishop, and Gosfregdh, Portreeve, and all the burgesses within London, French and English, friendly.
But, a year or two later, being in my own country down in the West, I read in the local paper that the last Portreeve of Usk, accompanied by his two Bailiffs, had unveiled a window in the parish church, commemorating the ending of this old song.
Why, the Chief Magistrate of the City of London was the Portreeve of London before Mayors, much less Lord Mayors, were born or thought of.
Usk is any the happier for having a Local Government Board instead of a Portreeve and two Bailiffs.
If the Portreeve of Usk had been enabled, by a Charter of King John, to burn alive in Porthycarne Street any persons to whose opinions he objected, I should be all in favour of a Limiting Clause: earnest Young Liberals, Unbending Young Conservatives, and a few other people being alone excepted from its benefits.