The Office of High Sheriff is the oldest continuous secular office under the Crown and can be traced back more than 1,000 years to the reign of the Saxon King ‘Ethelred the Unready’ (978-1016). It is the oldest official post in England and Wales.
The role is independent, voluntary and non-political. High Sheriffs receive no renumeration and no part of the expense of a High Sheriff’s year falls on the public purse. The office operates without any financial or administrative support, other than any support paid for by the High Sheriff.
The word ‘Sheriff’ derives from ‘Shire Reeve’ or the Anglo Saxon ‘Scir-gerefa’. The King’s Reeve was also known as the ‘High’ Reeve. High Sheriffs were appointed to act as the sovereign’s representative in their county and wielded extensive powers. Some Sheriffs led contingents at the Battle of Hastings. The Normans continued the Office and added to its powers. During the 11th and 12th centuries, a High Sheriff’s powers were very extensive. For example, they judged cases in the monthly court of the hundred (a sub-unit of the Shire); they had law enforcement powers and could raise the ‘hue and cry’ in pursuit of felons within their Shire; they could summon and command the ‘posse comitatus’ – the full power of the Shire in the service of the Sovereign; they collected taxes and levies and all dues on Crown lands on behalf of the Crown and were personally responsible for any shortfall, which is why the role was not always one to be welcomed by the incoming High Sheriff.
One of the more unsavoury duties of High Sheriffs was to organise and attend public executions and ensure they were properly performed. This duty continued until the abolition of the death penalty in 1965.
Sheriffs are mentioned in 27 of the 63 clauses of the Magna Carta (1215) and by the 13th Century were clearly fundamental to the running of the counties. By the 14th Century they had also become highly influential in choosing their county’s parliamentary representatives.
The Sheriffs’ powers were gradually restricted over succeeding centuries. Under Henry I their tax collection powers went to the Exchequer, which also took on the function of auditing the Sheriffs’ accounts. Henry II introduced the system of Itinerant Justices from which evolved the Assizes and the present day system of High Court Judges going out on Circuit. The Sheriff remained responsible for issuing Writs, for having ready the Court, prisoners and juries, and then executing the sentences once they were pronounced. It was also the Sheriff’s responsibility to ensure the safety and comfort of the Judges. This is the origin of the High Sheriff’s modern day duty of care for the well-being of High Court Judges.
In the middle of the 13th century, more powers went to the newly created offices of Coroners and Justices of the Peace. Under the Tudors, Lord-Lieutenants were created as personal representatives of the Sovereign. Queen Elizabeth I is generally believed to have originated the practice that continues to this day of the Sovereign choosing the High Sheriff by pricking a name on the Sheriffs’ Roll with a bodkin. It is said that she did this whilst engaged in embroidery in the garden. Sadly, this is a myth since there is a Sheriffs’ Roll dating from the reign of her grandfather Henry VII (1485-1508) on which the names were pricked through vellum.
The real reason for pricking through vellum was that the choice was not always a welcome honour due to the costs the incumbent was likely to have to shoulder and also the challenges faced in assessing and collecting taxes, particularly unpopular taxes such as Charles I’s demands for ship money in 1635. A mark with a pen on vellum could easily be erased with a knife, but a hole in the vellum (which is made from calf skin) could not be removed or repaired invisibly. The potential expense to the incumbent of becoming High Sheriff was one of the reasons the role was for a single year only.
By Acts of 1856 and 1865 all of the Sheriffs’ powers concerning police and prisons passed to the Prison Commissioners and local Constabulary, and under an Act of 1883 the care of Crown Property was transferred to the Crown Commissioners.
The Sheriffs Act of 1887 consolidated the law relating to the Office of High Sheriff and the Act remains in force to this day, though it has been amended a number of times. It repeated that the Office should be held for one year only; that a Sheriff who was a Magistrate should not sit as such during the year of Office; and confirmed the historic process of nomination and selection by the Sovereign.
Over the centuries the role of the High Sheriff has gradually been redefined. The Sheriffs Act of 1887, still in force, consolidated the responsibilities of High Sheriffs and confirmed their role as the Sovereign’s representative in the county for all matters relating to the Judiciary and the maintenance of law and order, tasks today principally delegated to the Chief Constable of Police.
Following the Courts Act of 2003, the High Sheriffs’ ancient responsibility for the enforcement of High Court Writs was transferred to the newly appointed High Court Enforcement Officers.
- https://highsheriffs.com/
- https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Your-council-and-democracy/Civic-and-Ceremonial/The-Staffordshire-Lieutenancy/About-the-Lieutenancy.aspx
