Sheriff, Shire-reeve, or Shiriff [fr. scire, Sax., fr. scyran, to divide, and gerefa, a guardian (vicecomes)], the chief officer of the Crown in every county.
The judges, together with the other great officers and privy councillors, meet in the Exchequer on the morrow (November 12th) of St. Martin, yearly; and then and there the judges propose three persons from each county, to be reported, if approved of, to the King, who afterwards appoints one of them to be sheriff, and such appointment generally takes place about the end of the following Hilary Term. If a sheriff die in office, the appointment of another is the mere act of the Crown.
The Sheriffs Act, 1887, repeals and, so far as they were not obsolete, re-enacts the very numerous enactments as to sheriffs from 3 Edw. 1, c. 9, to s. 16 of the (English) Judicature Act, 1881, inclusive. By s. 3 of this Act a sheriff is annually appointed, having (s. 4) sufficient land within the county to answer the King and his people; by s. 23 every sheriff must, within one month after his appointment is gazetted, nominate some fit person to be his under-sheriff; and by s. 24 every sheriff is to appoint a sufficient deputy, having an office within a mile of the Inner Temple Hall, for the receipt of writs, granting warrants thereon, making returns thereto, and accepting all rules and orders made as to the execution of any process or writ addressed to the sheriff. The two sheriffs of London are elected by the Corporation of the City. As to the protection of the sheriff selling goods under an execution without notice of claims by third parties, see Bankruptcy and Deeds of Arrangement Act, 1913, s. 15. Consult Mather's Sheriff Law.