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SHERIFF
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SHERIFF , or See also:SHIRE-See also:REEVE (O. Eng. scir-gerefa or scirman,' Latin, See also:vice-comes), often called " high sheriff," the See also:English and Irish executive authority in a See also:county, or other See also:place, often called his " bailiwick." The See also:office also exists in about twenty See also:ancient cities and boroughs, among which may be named See also:London, See also:Norwich, See also:York, See also:Bristol, See also:Oxford, See also:Lincoln, See also:Chester and See also:Canterbury in See also:England, and See also:Dublin, See also:Cork, See also:Limerick and other places in See also:Ireland. In most of these the office is of an honorary
1 The word occurs as See also:early as the See also:laws of See also:Ine (c. 8), about 69o.nature. The office is at See also:present an See also:annual one, though this has not been always the See also:case. Three names are put on the See also:list by the See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer and the See also:judges of See also: Besides executing the king's writs, he called out the posse comitatus on any emergency needing an armed force. He had the ferm of the shire2 (the See also:rent he paid being called " sheriff-geld ") and presided in the county See also:court and the See also:hundred court. For more purely judicial purposes he held as the king's See also:deputy the sheriff's tourn,3 where his See also:jurisdiction had not been ousted by See also:franchise. He might be a peer or a See also:judge, See also:Bracton being an instance of the latter. The See also:appointment seems to have been originally by popular See also:election, a right confirmed by 28 Edw. I. c. 8, but ultimately vested in the crown unless where certain powerful landowners had contrived to make the office hereditary. The hereditary shrievalty of See also:Westmorland was not abolished until 1850 by 13 & 14 Vict. C. 30.4 The tendency of the hereditary office to become obsolete was no doubt helped by the creation of See also:Viscount See also:Beaumont as an hereditary peer under the new dignity of vice-comes in 1440. At one time contributions to the expense of the office were made by the magistrates and others of the county. " Sheriff-tooth " was a See also:tenure on See also:condition of supplying entertainment to the sheriff at the county court. Up to. the 19th See also:century " See also:riding with the sheriff " was an incident of the assizes, the riders being some of the See also:principal men of the shire who brought with them See also:wine and victuals in See also:order to assist the sheriff in showing hospitality to the judges. At the present See also:day the expensive duties of the sheriff depend on numerous statutes beginning with 2 Edw. III. c. 3 (1328). The most important is the Sheriffs Act 1887, mainly a consolidating act applying to England only. The See also:person nominated is usually a See also:magistrate for the county, but anyone is eligible provided that he have See also:land in the county sufficient to See also:answer the king.5 Exempt are peers, See also:clergy, See also:officers in active service, practising barristers and solicitors and others. Poverty is also a ground of exemption. The sheriff appoints his undersheriff. The duties of the office at the present day are both administrative and judicial. Among the former the most important is attendance on the judges at assizes and election petitions. A certain amount of stately ceremony is required, and any lack of it is punishable by See also:fine either by the judge of See also:assize or by the High Court. Other administrative duties are See also:execution of writs6 and of the See also:sentence of See also:death, acting as returning officer at See also:parliamentary elections, preparing the See also:panel of jurors for assizes, the keeping prisoners in safe custody, he being liable for their See also:escape, and the—now nominal—See also:duty of summoning the posse comitatus. His judicial duties consist in himself or his deputy sitting to assess See also:damages under the Lands Clauses Act 1845, and also in cases set down for trial where the See also:defendant has made See also:default in See also:appearance and the issue resolves itself into one of damages. The expenses of the office are partly met by the 2 The ferm is abolished by the act of 1887, s. 19. 3 Abolished by s. 18 of the same act. 4 Repealed and re-enacted by the act of 1887, s. 31. 6 The counties of See also:Cambridge and See also:Huntingdon are combined for the purposes of the shrievalty. See the act of 1887, s. 32. 6 Where a question arises as to the ownership of goods seized in execution the sheriff may have to undergo the See also:process known as sheriff's See also:interpleader. See also:Treasury in accordance with the Treasury order of the 2nd of See also:August 1898. The order See also:lays down with somewhat grim See also:humour that the sheriff is not limited to the allowances, but may spend more if he likes. A sheriff cannot during his See also:year of office act as a magistrate for the county of which he is sheriff.
See the See also:works on the history of See also:law by See also:Stubbs, See also:Pollock and Maitland and Holdsworth. Also W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta (1905); See also:Sir M. See also:Hale, A See also:Short See also:Treatise touching Sheriff's Accompts (1683) ; See also:Greenwood, Bouleuterion (1685) ; The Compleat Sheriff (1696) ; See also:Impey (1786) ; See also:Atkinson (1878) ; See also:Churchill and See also:Bruce (1882) ; and See also:Mather (1903).
See also:Scotland.—As far as is known the sheriff did not exist in Scotland before the beginning of the See also:Norman See also:period. In the feudal See also:system he became as in England the centre of the local See also:administration of justice, the representative of the crown in executive as well as judicial business, and was always a royal officer appointed by and directly responsible to the king. The earliest sheriffs on See also:record belong to the reigns of See also: One of the consequences was that sheriffs ignorant of law required deputes to See also:discharge their judicial duties. In the course of succeeding reigns, down to that of James VI., the jurisdiction of the sheriffs came to be much limited by grants of baronies and regalities which gave the grantees the right to hold both See also:civil and criminal courts of less or greater jurisdiction to the exclusion of the sheriff.
The civil jurisdiction of the sheriff was originally of very wide extent, and was deemed specially applicable to questions See also:relating to the land within the shire, but after the institution of the court of session in 1532 it became restricted, and all causes relating to See also:property in land, as well as those requiring the See also:action called See also:declarator for establishing ultimate right, and most of those requiring equitable remedies, were withdrawn from it. Nor did it possess any consistorial jurisdiction. Practically, therefore, the civil jurisdiction of the sheriff See also:fell under the See also:head of actions concluding for See also:payment of See also:money and actions to regulate the See also:possession of land. The criminal jurisdiction of the sheriff was in like manner in its origin of almost universal extent. But this was first limited to cases where the offenders were caught in or shortly after the act, afterwards to cases in which the trial could be held within See also:forty days, and subsequently further restricted as the business of the See also:justiciary court became more organized. The See also:punishment of death, having by See also:long disuse come to be held beyond the power of the sheriff, and the statutory punishments of transportation or penal See also:servitude never having been entrusted to him, his jurisdiction as regards crimes was usually said to be limited to those punishable arbitrarily, that is, by imprisonment, fine or admonition.
As a consequence of the suppression of the Jacobite rising of 1745, after the 1st of March 1748 all heritable sheriffships were extinguished by 20 Geo. II. c. 43. The act declared that there should be but one sheriff-depute or See also: Since 1769 the sheriff-depute has held his office ad vitam See also:aut culpam. Power was given to him by 20 Geo. II. c. 43 to appoint one or more sheriffs-substitute. In 1787 the sheriff-substitute was placed on the civil See also:establishment and paid by the crown; in 1825 a qualification of three years' standing (now five years by the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1877) as an advocate or See also:procurator before a sheriff court was required (6 Geo. IV. c. 23); in 1838 he was made removable by the sheriff-depute only with the consent of the See also:lord See also:president and lord justice clerk, and it was made compulsory that he should reside in the sheriffdom, the See also:provision of 20 Geo. II. c. 43, which required the sheriff-depute so to reside for four months of each year, being repealed (1 & 2 Vict. C. 119). In 1877 the right of appointment of the substitutes was transferred .from the sheriff-depute to the crown by the act of 1877. While the sheriff-depute has still power to hear cases in the first instance, and is required to hold a certain number of sittings in each place where the sheriff-substitute holds courts, and also once a year a small-See also:debt court in every place where a See also:circuit small-debt court is appointed to be held, the See also:ordinary course of civil See also:procedure is that the sheriff-substitute acts as judge of first instance, with an See also:appeal under certain restrictions from his decision to the sheriff-depute, and from him to the court of session in all causes exceeding £25 in value. An appeal See also:direct from the sheriff-substitute to the court of session is competent, but is not often resorted to. By the See also:Interpretation Act 1889, s. 28, the word " sheriff " in any act relating to Scotland is to include a sheriff-substitute. As regards criminal proceedings, See also:summary trials are usually conducted by the sheriff-substitute; trials with a See also:jury either by him or, in important cases, by the sheriff-depute. The sheriff-substitute also has See also:charge of the preliminary investigation into See also:crime, the See also:evidence in which, called a precognition, is laid before him, and if necessary taken before him on See also:oath at the instance of his procurator-fiscal, the local crown prosecutor. The duties of the sheriff-depute are now divided into ministerial or administrative and judicial. The ministerial are the supervision of the accounts of the inferior officers of the sheriffdom; the superintendence of parliamentary elections; the holding by himself or his substitutes of the courts for See also:registration of See also:electors; the preparation of the list of persons liable to serve both on criminal and civil juries; the appointment of sheriff officers and supervision of the execution of judicial writs by them; and the striking of the " fiars." He has also to attend the judges of justiciary at the circuit courts for the county or counties over which his jurisdiction extends. The judicial duties of the sheriff-depute are, as regards crimes, the trial of all causes remitted by the counsel of the crown for the trial by sheriff and jury, as well as summary trials if he chooses to take them. This now means most crimes for which a maximum of two years' imprisonment (in practice eighteen months is the longest sentence imposed) is deemed sufficient, and which are not by See also:statute reserved for the justiciary court. His civil jurisdiction is regulated by several statutes too technical for detail, but may be said generally to extend to all suits which conclude for payment of money, whatever may be the cause of action, with the exception of a few where the payment depends on status, all actions with reference to the possession of land or right in land, and actions relative to the right of See also:succession to movable property. In See also:bankruptcy he has a cumulative and alternative jurisdiction with the court of session, and in the service of heirs with the sheriff of See also:chancery. The courts which the sheriff holds are (I) the criminal court; (2) the ordinary civil court; (3) the small-debt court for cases under £12 in value (6 Geo. IV. c. 48) ; (4) the debts recovery court for cases above £12 and under £50 in value (Debts Recovery [Scotland] Act 1867) ; and (5) the registration court. His See also:judgment in the criminal court is subject to See also:review by the court of justiciary, and in the ordinary civil court and the debts recovery court by the court of session. In the small-debt court it is final, except in certain cases where an appeal lies to the next circuit court of justiciary. The sheriff-substitute may competently exercise all the judicial jurisdiction of the sheriff, subject to appeal in civil cases other than small debt cases. As regards his administrative functions he assists the sheriff generally, and may act for him in the registration and fiars court, and he superintends the preliminary See also:stage of criminal inquiries, consulting with the sheriff if necessary; but the other administrative duties of the office are conducted by the sheriff-depute in person. The executive functions of the sheriff are performed by messengers-atarms. The civil jurisdiction depends on numerous statutes known, as the Sheriff Courts and Small Debts Acts. The salaries of sheriffs-depute vary from £2000 to £500 a year, those of sheriffs-substitute from £1400 to £500. There is a principal sheriff-clerk appointed by the crown for each county, who has depute clerks under him in the -principal towns, and a procurator-fiscal for the conduct of criminal prosecutions for each county and See also:district of a county, who is appointed by the sheriff with the See also:sanction of the See also:home secretary. Besides the sheriffs of counties, there is a sheriff of chancery appointed by the crown, whose duties are confined to the service of heirs, with a See also:salary of £500. See the various works on sheriff court practice, such as those of J. D. See also: The sheriff has administrative and limited judicial authority. He sometimes serves for combined counties, as in England for Cambridge and Huntingdon. (J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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