Selectmen

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Selectman \Se*lect"man\, n.; pl. {Selectmen}.
     One of a board of town officers chosen annually in the New
     England States to transact the general public business of the
     town, and have a kind of executive authority. The number is
     usually from three to seven in each town.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           The system of delegated town action was then, perhaps,
           the same which was defined in an "order made in 1635 by
           the inhabitants of Charlestown at a full meeting for
           the government of the town, by selectmen;" the name
           presently extended throughout New England to municipal
           governors.                               --Palfrey.
     [1913 Webster]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SELECTMEN. The name of certain officers in several of the United States, who 
  are invested by the statutes of the several states with various powers.