Burgher

Burgher is an old fashioned term for a well-to-do resident of a town. It originally refered to a privileged member of a European town.  Burghers are members of burgh or borough. Burgher and Burgess are closely related words, and are derived from the medieval idea of burgh or borough.  However, they developed slightly with different meanings. 

A burgher is an inhabitant of town or borough.  More specifically, a respected citizen of the urban middle class - often a merchant, trader, or property earned towns man. 

In literature, the word burgher evokes the image of a prosperous, solid, somewhat conservative citizen. 

Burgess originally meant a free man or a citizen of a borough.  Later, it extended to an official representative of borough, especially in a local government. 

When Victorian authors like Thomas Hardy use burgher, they mean a respectable urban citizen or member of commercial middle class, often with a hint of conventionality. 

Both words are cousins of the French bourgeois, from which the term bourgeoisie ultimately developed. Historically, the medieval burgher is one of the ancestors of the modern bourgeois class.