The Office of Sheriff Definition: \Shriev"al*ty\, n. [Contr. from sheriffalty. See {Shrieve}, n. {Sheriff}.] The office, or sphere of jurisdiction, of a sheriff; sheriffalty. It was ordained by Edward I that the people shall have election of sheriff in every shire where the shrievalty is not of inheritance. --Blackstone. Office of Sheriff The Office of Sheriff is one of antiquity. It is the oldest law enforcement office known within the common-law system and it has always been accorded great dignity and high trust. For the most part, the Office of Sheriff evolved of necessity. Were it not for laws which require enforcing, there would have been no necessity for the Sheriff. There would have been no need for the development of police administration, criminology, criminalists, etc. This is not the case, however. Man learned quite early that all is not orderly in the universe. All times and all places have generated those who covet the property of their neighbors and who are willing to expropriate this property by any means. As such, man's quest for equity and order gave birth to the Office of Sheriff, the history of which begins in the Old Testament and continues through the annals of Judeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, there is no honorable law enforcement authority in Anglo-American law so ancient as that of the County Sheriff. And today, as in the past, the County Sheriff is a peace officer entrusted with the maintenance of law and order and the preservation of domestic tranquility. Sheriffs have served and protected the English-speaking peoples for a thousand years. The Office of Sheriff and the law enforcement, judicial and correctional functions he performs are more than 1000 years old. The Office of Sheriff dates back at least to the reign of Alfred the Great of England, and some scholars even argue that the Office of Sheriff was first created during the Roman occupation of England. Around 500 AD, Germanic tribes from Europe (called the Anglo-Saxons) began an invasion of Celtic England which eventually led over the centuries to the consolidation of Anglo-Saxon England as a unified kingdom under Alfred the Great late in the 9th Century. Alfred divided England into geographic units called "shires", or counties. In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxons and instituted his own Norman government in England. Both under the Anglo-Saxons and under the Normans, the King of England appointed a representative called a "reeve" to act on behalf of the king in each shire or county. The "shire-reeve" or King's representative in each county became the "Sheriff" as the English language changed over the years. The shire-reeve or Sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer of each county in the year 1000 AD. He still will have the same function in the counties of the United States in the year 2000 AD. The concepts of "county" and "Sheriff" were essentially the same as they had been during the previous 900 years of English legal history. Because of the English heritage of the American colonies, the new United States adopted the English law and legal institutions as its own. Clearly, the Sheriff is the only viable officer remaining of the ancient offices, and his contemporary responsibility as conservator of the peace has been influenced greatly by modern society. As the crossbow gave way to the primitive flintlock the Sheriff is not unaccustomed to change. But now, perhaps more than ever before in history, law enforcement if faced with complex, moving, rapid changes in methodology, technology, and social attitudes. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his THE VALUE OF CONSTITUTIONS, "the Office of Sheriff is the most important of all the executive offices of the county." Glossary From: Guide to Medieval Terms Ed., J. S. Arkenberg REEVE: A manorial official charged with responsibility for the economic and agricultural management of a manor, similar in function to a bailiff, except that reeves were often of villein or servile status and were usually not paid a salary but instead released from labor services or granted a piece of property or both. Effectively, the manorial foreman. SHERIFF (from "Shire Reeve"): The official who is the chief administrative and judicial officer of a shire. Many of the sheriff's duties were taken over by the royal justices, the coroners, and the keepers (later justices) of the peace. Sheriffs notably collected the king's taxes and forwarded them to the Exchequer. The sheriff also was responsible for administering justice and enforcing the laws; summoning jurors; apprehending felons; maintaining royal castles; enforcing various mercantile matters; executing judicial and administrative writs and decrees; holding inquests, assizes, the county court, the sheriff's tourn, and the view of frankpledge; seizing and attaching persons, lands, and chattels; supervising elections; enforcing obligations for public works; and keeping extensive administrative records. SHIRE / COUNTY: An administrative unit stemming from Late Roman government originally governed by a Comes. In time, this evolved first into the region governed by the Count, then into the hereditary lands held by the Count (which by this time had become a title of nobility). In England, this is equivalent to the "shire"--originally governed by the Shire-Reeve or Sheriff (in Latin known as the Vice-Comes to designate the man who did the actual work, from the Comes/titular sheriff who held the title as a matter of honor and profit but did no work--under the Angevins the titular English sheriff disappeared leaving the Vice-Comes with both the title and power of "Sheriff").