SHERIFF, an officer, in each county in England, nominated by the king, invested with a judicial and ministerial power, and who takes place of every nobleman in the county during the time of his office.
The sheriff is an officer of very great antiquity in this kingdom, his name being derived from two Saxon words, signifying the reeve, bailliff, or officer of the shire. He is called in Latin vice-comes, as being the deputy of the earl or comes, to whom the custody of the shire is said to have been committed at the first division of this kingdom into counties. But the earls, in process of time, by reason of their high employments and attendance on the king's person, not being able to transact the business of the county, were delivered of that burden, reserving to themselves the honour, but the labour was laid on the sheriff. So that now the sheriff does all the king's business in the county; and though he be still called vice-comes, yet he is entirely independent of, and not subject to, the earl; the king, by his letters patent, committing custodiam comitatus to the sheriff, and to him alone.
Sheriffs were formerly chosen by the inhabitants of the several counties. In confirmation of which it was ordained, by statute 28 Edw. I. c. 8. that the people should have an election of sheriffs in every shire where the shrievalty is not of inheritance. For anciently in some
counties the sheriffs were hereditary; as we apprehend they were in Scotland till the statute 20 Geo. II. c. 43; and still continue in the county of Westmoreland to this day; the city of London having also the inheritance of the shrievalty of Middlesex vested in their body by charter. The reason of these popular elections is assigned in the same statute, c. 13. "that the commons might choose such as would not be a burden to them." And herein appears plainly a strong trace of the democratical part of our constitution; in which form of government it is an indispensable requisite, that the people should choose their own magistrates. This election was in all probability not absolutely vested in the commons, but required the royal approbation. For in the Gothic constitution, the judges of their county courts (which office is executed by the sheriff) were elected by the people, but confirmed by the king; and the form of their election was thus managed: the people, or incola territorii, chose twelve electors, and they nominated three persons, ex quibus rex unum confirmabat. But, with us in England, these popular elections, growing tumultuous, were put an end to by the statute 9 Edw. II. st. 2. which enacted, that the sheriffs should from thenceforth be assigned by the chancellor, treasurer, and the judges; as being persons in whom the same trust might with confidence be reposed. By statutes 14 Edw. III. c. 7. 23 Hen. VI. c. 8. and 21 Hen. VIII. c. 20. the chancellor, treasurer, president of the king's council, chief justices, and chief baron, are to make this election; and that on the morrow of All Souls, in the exchequer. And the king's letters patent, appointing the new sheriffs, used commonly to bear date the sixth day of November. The statute of Cambridge, 12 Ric. II. c. 2. ordains, that the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, steward of the king's house, the king's chamberlain, clerk of the rolls, the justices of the one bench and the other, barons of the exchequer, and all other that shall be called to ordain, name, or make justices of the peace, sheriffs, and other officers of the king, shall be sworn to act indifferently, and to name no man that sueth to be put in office, but such only as they shall judge to be the best and most sufficient. And the custom now is (and has been at least ever since the time of Fortescue, who was chief justice and chancellor to Henry the Sixth), that all the judges, together with the other great officers, meet in the exchequer chamber on the morrow of All Souls yearly, (which day is now altered to the morrow of St Martin, by the last act for abbreviating Michaelmas term), and then and there propose three persons to the king, who afterwards appoints one of them to be sheriff. This custom of the twelve judges proposing three persons seems borrowed from the Gothic constitution before mentioned: with this difference, that among the Goths the 12 nominors were first elected by the people themselves. And this usage of ours, at its first introduction, there is reason to believe, was founded upon some statute, though not now to be found among our printed laws; first, because it is materially different from the direction of all the statutes before-mentioned; which it is hard to conceive that the judges would have countenanced by their concurrence, or that Fortescue would have inserted in his book, unless by the authority of some statute; and also, because a statute is expressly referred to in the record, which Sir Edward Coke tells