hreppstjóri

a, m. a ‘Rape-steerer,’ overseer, Jb. 186, Vm. 116: in each Rape in Icel. the best yeoman is chosen as hreppstjóri by the sheriff (amtmaðr) or, as in former days, by the parishioners, but he is not paid; he has, jointly with the parish priest, to manage the business of the Rape, esp. to see to the maintenance of the poor, fix the poor-rate of each franklin, and, as there are no poor-houses, to arrange the distribution of the poor (úmagar) among the parishioners. In the days of the Commonwealth there was a committee of five members, called hreppstjórnarmenn (q. v.), which discharged the duties of the present hreppstjóri; með ráði heima-prests ok hreppstjóra, Vm. 116. This word does not occur in the Grágás, but only after A. D. 1281; for the reading hreppstjóri in the D. I. i. 199 (in a deed supposed to be of A. D. 1150) is only found in a mod. transcript, and the original prob. had hreppstjórnarmenn (pl.)