noun
definition
A man who is a resident of a town, especially of one's own town.
synonyms
Examples of townsmen in a Sentence
On his death-bed he is said to have requested a friend to hide his body as soon as life was extinct, and, by putting a serpent in its place, induce his townsmen to suppose that he had been carried up to heaven.
Philomelion was probably a Pergamenian foundation on the great Graeco-Roman highway from Ephesus to the east, and to its townsmen the Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the martyrdom of Polycarp. Cicero, on his way to Cilicia, dated some of his extant correspondence there; and the place played a considerable part in the frontier wars between the Byzantine emperors and the sultanate of Rum.
Ayala persuaded his sister to appear as the heroine of his comedy, La primera Dama, and the innovation, if it scandalized some of his townsmen, permitted him to develop his talent more freely.
He settled in the island of Hydra on the east of the Morea, and when the Greek War of Independence began was known among his fellow townsmen as a trader in corn who had gained wealth, and who made a popular use of his money.
At Prague a demagogue, the priest John of Zelivo, for a time obtained almost unlimited authority over the lower classes of the townsmen; and at Tabor a communistic movement (that of the so-called Adamites) was sternly suppressed by Zizka.
Many towns were founded, among which were Dresden, Leipzig and Freiburg; Chemnitz began its textile industry; and although the condition of the peasants was wretched, that of the townsmen was improving.
After its dissolution the townsmen became, in 1549, a corporation holding of the king, by a charter which transferred to them the property and duties of the gild, and was renewed in 1610 and 1669.
They tried to set the city on fire, but the townsmen did them more harm than they " ever weened."
The chronicler piously adds that " the holy Mother of God on that day manifested her mercy to the townsmen, and delivered them from their foes."
Three years after this, Æthelred died in London, and such of the witan as were there and the townsmen chose Edmund Ironside for king, although the witan outside London had elected Canute.
The tribute which the townsmen of London had to pay was £ro,50o, about one-seventh of the amount which was paid by all the rest of the English nation.
Jotham, the only one who is said to have escaped, boldly appeared on Mount Gerizim and denounced the ingratitude of the townsmen towards the legitimate sons of the man who had saved them from Midian.
It was regarded by the townsmen as one of their most important privileges.
Palgrave says little of the desert part of the journey or of its Bedouin inhabitants, but much of the fertility of the oases and of the civility of the townsmen; and like other travellers in Nejd he speaks with enthusiasm of its bright, exhilarating climate.
Asses of excellent quality are bred all over the country; they are much used as mounts by the richer townsmen.
The Tsar's Government under the electoral statute of 1905 granted the four-class franchise (landowners, peasants, townsmen and workmen) in such wise as to favour the rural population.
Diehl is of opinion that the exercitus was formed of the ancient "possessores," or landowners and free townsmen, who were of a less rank than the ordo senatorius.
In the domain of the Knights the gentry, parochial clergy and townsmen, who, beneath its protection, had attained to a high degree of wealth and civilization, for long remained without the slightest political influence, though they bore nearly the whole burden of taxation.
This encounter roused the New England colonies, and in a few days some 16,000 of their townsmen marched in small bands upon Boston to protest against and resist further similar incursions; and in this irregular body we have the nucleus of the colonial forces which carried the war through.
This policy was accompanied by a gradual decay of civic feeling and municipal enterprise, which showed itself mainly in the unwillingness of the townsmen to become candidates for local magistracies, or to take up the burdens entailed in membership of the municipal senate.
Abd-ul-Qasim gained the confidence of the townsmen by organizing a successful resistance to the Berber soldiers of fortune who were grasping at the fragments of the caliphate.
During the 14th century the nobles and the townsmen began to take part in the government, and about this time Upper Lusatia was known as the district of the six towns (Sechsstddtelandes), these being Bautzen, Gorlitz, Zittau, Lobau, Lauban and Kamenz.
At first the bishops were too strong for the townsmen; the defences built in i i 10 were pulled down by the bishop's order two years later; and during the 12th and 13th centuries the see of Utrecht, in spite of frequent revolts, succeeded in maintaining its authority.
The governor exhorted the townsmen to come to terms and offered to mediate; but they resolved to abide the contest.
Subsequently, it suffered much by famine and the occasional assaults of the neighbouring Irish chieftains, whose favour the townsmen were at length forced to secure by the payment of an annual tribute.
The population is generally divisible into I The fellahin or peasantry and the native townsmen.
The king's death assured the victory, which Surrey had not the strength to pursue, though the townsmen of Edinburgh built their famous Flodden Wall to resist him if he approached.
In this sense it is also used of the Mahommedan townsmen in the other Barbary states.'
Luther believed that the sales were injurious to the morals of the townsmen; he had heard reports of Tetzel's sermons; he had become wrathful on reading the letter of recommendation of the archbishop; and friends had urged him to interfere.
Luther became alarmed, and, not without a private hint from the elector of Saxony,' left his retreat and appeared among his townsmen.
As a Cinque Port, Dover (Dofra, Dovorra) had to contribute twenty of the quota of ships furnished by those ports; in return for this service a charter of liberties was granted to the ports by Edward the Confessor, making the townsmen quit of shires and hundreds, with the right to be impleaded only at Shepway, and other privileges, which were confirmed by subsequent kings, with additions, down to James II.
In 1196 Count Louis granted privileges to the townsmen; the commune, which survived throughout the middle ages, probably dated from this time.
Sacked and burned time after time during the Border strife, it was inevitable that the townsmen should become keen fighters.
Priests, merchants, villagers, especially about Shiraz, townsmen, shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers wear it very long, often nearly to the heels.
In 1539 the townsmen accepted the reformed doctrines and the abbey was converted into a Protestant sisterhood.
He hoped to find in the German townsmen a counterpoise to the overwhelming power of the Bohemian nobility.
As regards matters of state the reign of Vladislav is marked by a decrease of the royal prerogative, while the power of the nobility attained an unprecedented height, at the expense, not only of the royal power, but also of the rights of the townsmen and peasants.
Various enactments belonging to this reign also curtailed the rights of the Bohemian townsmen.
It was tacitly assumed that the townsmen had no inherent rights, but only such privileges as might be granted them by their sovereign with the consent of the nobles and knights.
The water is said to be free to townsmen, but is sold to the pilgrims at a rather high rate.6 Medieval writers celebrate the copious supplies, especially of fine fruits, brought to the city from Taff and other fertile parts of Arabia.
Three magistri belonging to that society, one of whom was August Hermann Francke, subsequently the founder of the famous orphanage at Halle (1695), commenced courses of expository lectures on the Scriptures of a practical and devotional character, and in the German language, which were zealously frequented by both students and townsmen.
Van Artevelde, its chief advocate, was murdered by his own townsmen in this same year.
The townsmen are more distinctly Turkish, i.e.
Lyons, where the Royalists were strong, defended itself with courage, for the trial and execution of Challier made the townsmen hopeless of pardon.
A column was also erected to him by his townsmen of Hull.
The borough was never incorporated, but certain liberties, including exemption from toll and passage, were granted to the townsmen by Henry III.
The struggle ended in becoming one between factions of the townsmen, led respectively by the hitchier Cirasse and by Jean Caboche.
The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough probably began in the same year, when they were amerced for a false presentment.
Four inquisitions during the 13th century supported the abbot's claims, yet in 1343 the townsmen declared in a chancery bill of complaint that Cirencester was a borough distinct from the manor, belonging to the king but usurped by the abbot, who since 1308 had abated their court of provostry..
They are good cultivators of the soil, but are poor, superstitious, ignorant and unambitious, and they live in semi-subterranean houses as their ancestors did Boo years B.C. The townsmen, especially in the large towns, have more regular features - often of the Persian type.