Editor
The views expressed
in this site are personal and intended to give an informal view,
We would like to acknowledge the following for information and extracts.
"The Sheriff - The Man and his Office" by Irene Gladwin
The UnderSheriff of Lincolnshire
BBC
The Shrievalty Association
Hampshire County Council
Cartoons from The Times, Daily Telegraph and others
Editor.Richard A Bellamy High Sheriff of Humberside 1980-81
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Origins
The foundations of Anglo-Saxon society rested on an unstable economy.
Famines, plagues and pestilence were frequent and death from starvation
was not uncommon.
The cause lay in primitive methods of animal husbandry, the scarcity of
arable land, hard winters.
The peasants scratched the soil from dawn to dusk and were frequently
attacked by bandits and rapacious neighbours!
No man worked harder than the reeve, who had been chosen by a free peasant
community to organize and supervise its communal activities.
An agreement was made between the peasants and the nearest lord for the
lord to offer his protection and the peasants to give their land to him
and rent it back either in money, service or kind. (The Start of the leasehold
system)
Their reeve became the lord's reeve and was placed in authority over all
the peasants and lands in the lord's area of influence.
The reeves' first duty was to ensure that both sides kept their bargains.
Over a period the most important reeves were appointed as Kings or High
Reeves and from this came his influence in the legal system.
The name High Reeve was still in use in 1001 and the title "Sheriff"
(Shire Reeve) does not occur until 1055.
Originally the office held many of the powers now vested in Lord Lieutenants,
High Court Judges, Magistrates, Local Authorities, Coroners and even the
Inland Revenue.
The Office of High Sheriff remained first in precedence in the Counties
until 1908 when an Order in Council gave the Lord Lieutenant the prime
office under the Crown as the Sovereign's personal representative. The
High Sheriff remains the Sovereign's representative in the County for
all matters relating to the Judiciary and the maintenance of law and order.
From "The Sheriff The Man and his Office" et al
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Functions
A High Sheriff on
appointment swears an oath, which instructs the holder to "take command
of the said County", and should they see anything untoward happening
to inform "The Queen or Her Majesties Judges thereof".
Therefore the post fits into our unwritten constitution as there is a
person in each county that is a non-political appointment made by the
Privy Council that only last for one year, is unpaid and therefore cannot
be influenced for future benefit.
As the only person in the civic circle that is non-party political they
are well placed to keep an eye on the county to ensure that corruption
and wrong practice can be identified and stamped out.
The High Sheriff's
Functions of Office are conferred by the Crown through Warrant from the
Privy Council including :-
Attendence at Royal visits to the County
The wellbeing and
protection of Her Majesty's High Court Judges when on Circuit in the County
and attending them in Court during the legal terms.
The execution of High
Court Writs and Orders (through the Under Sheriff whose annual appointment
is by the High Sheriff alone)
Acting as the Returning
Officer for Parliamentary Elections in County constituencies.
Responsibility for
the proclamation of the accession of a new Sovereign.
The maintenance of
the loyalty of subjects to the Crown.
The Warrant of Appointment
as High Sheriff remains valid even on the death of the Sovereign. In practice
some of these responsibilities are delegated to the professional services,
for example the protection of the Judges and the mainenance of law and
order are in the hands of the Chief Constable of Police.
(acknowledgement to
the Shrievalty Association for the above and other information)
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Pricking
The Monarch selects
the names of the High Sheriff for each county from a list that is presented
to her by the Privy Council.
In Queen Victoria's Reign, She was sewing and used her bodkin to mark
the list. From then onwards the High Sheriff is always said to have been
"pricked" when appointed.
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Riot Act
In common use is the
term "to read the riot act", this is in fact a formal legal
term that is still in use - if seldom used.
In the County of Humberside (which existed from 1974 until 1996) the first
High Sheriff, John Godfrey Fisher was asked by the police to read the
Riot Act at Hull University. The cause was that the students had occupied
the main admin buildings and had locked the doors!
The Police had not the authority to break down the door and clear the
building until the High Sheriff had read The Riot Act.
With some trepidation Mr Fisher was driven to the University and stood
exposed on the steps reading the Riot Act. As soon as he had finished
the police rushed past him and broke down the door ending the occupation
peacefully!
The Riot Act has since
been repealed.
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The Posse Comitatus
In one way or another, the sheriff has retained his interest, if not his
responsibility for crime prevention right up to the present day. His responsibilities
were handed over to the new constabulary of Sir Robert Peel in 1829 after
more than eight hundred years of "preserving the King's peace."
In the earliest days, the sheriff would pronounce sentence of outlawry
with the words "let him bear the wolf's head." This meant that
the outlaw could be hunted down and slain in the same way that marauding
wolves were hunted. The sheriff could then raise "the hue and cry"
officially known as the "posse comitatus" or power of the county.
Not since 1830, when the sheriff of Oxfordshire raised the posse comitatus
to help him quell riots over a hotly disputed enclosure award has the
power been exercised.
During the two World Wars the power to raise a posse in an emergency was
re-invoked. Since then, however, the only remnant of this power to survive
is the duty of the sheriff to read the Riot Act in the unlikely event
of an insurrection against the Crown. Today, it is likely that the [English]
sheriff would call upon the police if he required assistance in carrying
out any of his remaining duties, including the protection of judges or
the execution of writs.
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Monarch
Our current Monarch is Her Majesty Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of Windsor,
the elder daughter of King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother.
Born 21st April 1926, she ascended to the throne on 6th February 1952,
crowned at Westminster Abbey 2nd June 1953
Married to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on 20 November 1947
The Sovereign personifies
the state and is an integral part of the legislature
- Head of the executive,
- Head of the judiciary,
- The commander in chief of all armed forces of the Crown
- and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Although the powers of the monarchy are often seen as very limited, because
the holder has the titles and positions above, it stops the tenant of
No 10 Downing Street - The Prime Minister,from having the power that these
positions contain.
This often-underrated
situation of negative power is of vital importance in our Constitutional
Democracy as it ensures that politicians of all parties are operating
under certain constraints not evident in many other countries.
The first five in order of succession to the throne is
1 HRH The Prince of Wales
2 HRH Prince William of Wales
3 HRH Prince Henry of Wales
4 HRH The Duke of York
5 HRH Princess Beatrice of York
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