Page 8, note (o), dele “2 Will. 4, c. 39, s. 1, giving power to arrest within 200 yards of his own county." OF THE OFFICE OF SHERIFF. CHAPTER I. SECTION I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. ENGLAND and Wales, for the better government of them, and the more easy administration of justice, are divided into counties, respectively governed by an Officer, whom we call a Sheriff; an officer of great trust and authority having from her Majesty the Queen the custody, keeping, command, and government (in some sort) of the whole county committed to his charge during her will and pleasure. Upon his name (a), whence derived, much antiquarian learn- Name. ing has been expended, and no few shrewd conjectures hazarded, but they are at best but conjectures; preferring, as we do, practical benefit to speculative exactness, we profess not herein to know more thereon than what may let us into a more clear and distinct understanding of what otherwise might not be so, and leave the rest to a Camden or a Coke, to a Dalton or a Blackstone, with whose ingenuity and wit, to use the quaint language of my said Lord Coke, "the courteous reader may disport himself with for awhile ;” "Conveniunt rebus nomina sæpe suis." Before concluding our labours we shall have to dwell more particularly on his powers and duties as a Judge, as a Minister of the Courts of Law and Equity, as the Queen's bailiff, and as a Conservator pacis (the division into which they fall); but it may be well to put down here in limine a few legal axioms and (a) Camd. 158; Co. 4, 33; Mitton's case, Co. 9; Preface Co. Litt. 168; Dalton, 1; 1 Roll. Rep. 364; see also Baron Tomlinson's speech to the Sheriffs of London and Middle B sex, in Morgan's Phoenix Britanicus, County or shire, defini. tion of. Quillets. definitions" as things necessary to be continually had in re membrance." A County or Shire (b) is one of those several divisions into which the realm is divided for the better government of it and the more easy administration of justice; or, to use the language of Fuller, "that they may have no reason to complain, with the Grecian widows, that they are neglected in the daily ministration (c)." Of this division of the realm into counties the Courts take official notice (d), but the local situation of any place in any county the Courts do not officially notice. There is no part of the kingdom that lieth not in some county (e). There are certain districts and places parcel of some one county, but wholly situate within and surrounded by some other county; these districts or places are called Quillets (ƒ), and were within memory productive of inconvenience and delay in the service and execution of the process of the Superior Courts, because of their locality; but this is now remedied by the 20th section of the Uniformity of Process Act, (2 Will. 4, c. 39,) which enacts" that every such district and place shall and may, for the purpose of the service and execution of every writ and process, whether mesne or judicial, issued out of either of the (b) Fort. c. 24; Co. Litt. 125 a, b; 1 Ch. Pl. 267," Venue," 6th edit. (c) "I have heard some critics making this distinction betwixt, that such are shires which take their denomination from some principal town, as Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, &c., whilst the rest not wearing the name of any town are to be reputed counties, as Norfolk, Suffolk, &c.; but we need not go into Wales to confute their curiosity, where we meet Merionethshire and Glamorganshire, but no towns so termed; nay, Devonshire doth discompose this their English conceit."Fuller, c. xviii. Ibid. P. 2. (d) Deybel's case, 4 B. & Ald. 243; Stephens on Pl. p. 349, n. ; 1 Salk. Rep. 266. (e) Fort. de Laud. c. xxiv.; Jenk. Rep. Ca. 7. (f) The reason whereof I conceive to be, for that the same "Quillets were parcel of the possession of some nobleman, bishop, or abbey, who had some great seignory in that county whereof the same Quillet is accounted parcel; as for example, the counties of Devon and Cornwall are divided with the river of Tamir, but yet a certain " "Quillet" lying on the hither side of the river is parcel of the earldom's land, and therefore it is a member of the county of Cornwall; so also a certain parcel of land within the county of Berks, called Twyford, is parcel of the county of Wilts, which is at the least 20 miles distant from the same; the reason whereof also is in respect that it was parcel of the inheritance of the Abbey of Ambresbury, the site and chiefest possessions whereof are in the county of Wilts; Hearne's Coll. p. 50. Castle of Chester, which is within the ambit of the city, but is a part of the county of Chester, and is the gaol for that county, Rex v. Antrobus, 2 Ad. & Ellis, 807; 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 1, s. 1. Newgate, which is the prison as well for the county of Middlesex as for London, within which it stands; Wood's Inst. 76. |