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REEVE (O. E. gerefa)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 976 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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REEVE (O. E. gerefa) , an See also:English See also:official who in See also:early times was entrusted with the See also:administration of a See also:division of the See also:country. He was the See also:chief See also:magistrate of a See also:town or See also:district, See also:REEF-REEVE 975 and is the ancestor of the See also:sheriff, the See also:shire-reeve. In addition to the sheriff there were several kinds of See also:reeves, and we are told in the See also:body of See also:laws known as the laws of See also:Edward the See also:Confessor that it is " multiplex nomen; greve enim dicitur de scira, de wapentagiis, de hundredis, de burgis, de villis." Thus we hear of See also:port-reeves, See also:burg-reeves, and See also:tun-reeves, while the Anglo-Saxon See also:Chronicle mentions high reeves. It was the tun-reeve or reve of the township who with four other men represented the township in the courts of the See also:hundred and the shire. In See also:free townships he was probably chosen by the inhabitants; in dependent townships by the See also:lord. A little later there were See also:manor reeves, these being elected by the villains; according to See also:Fleta, their duties were to attend to the cultivation of the See also:land, and to see that each villain performed his proper See also:share of service. The reve of See also:Chaucer's See also:Canterbury Tales was doubtless a steward or See also:bailiff, something See also:equivalent to the grieve in See also:Scotland to-See also:day. In early English the word reeve was sometimes used as a See also:translation for the See also:prefect or See also:governor of See also:Roman and Jewish times. Some authorities have thought that there is some connexion between the Anglo-Saxon gerefa and the See also:German See also:Graf, but Max See also:Muller (Lectures on the See also:Science of See also:Language, 1885) is inclined to doubt this. J. M.

See also:

Kemble (See also:Saxons in See also:England, 1876), who goes at length into the See also:history of the reeve, connects the word with rofan or refan, to See also:call aloud, this making him the See also:original of the bannitor, or proclaimer of the See also:court. At the See also:present See also:time the word reeve is sometimes used to describe a foreman or overseer in a See also:coal mine. It is also used in See also:Canada for the See also:president of a See also:village or town See also:council.

End of Article: REEVE (O. E. gerefa)

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