Mandated Reporter - Law Dictionary Search Results

Sheriff, Shire-reeve, or Shiriff

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 ...