The History of the Worthies of England, Part 1 · Chapter 15
CHAP. XV. Of SHIRE-REEVES or SHIRIFFES.
REEVE (which hath much Affinity with the Dutch Grave) signifieth an Officer to oversee and order, being chief in the Shire. In Latin Vice-comes, or Vicecount. And, seeing shadows in effect are as ancient as the bodies, they may be beleived as old as Counts, and Counts as Counties, and Counties as King Alfred, who first divided England into Shires about the year of our Lord 888.
The late fashion was, that the Clerk of the Peace for each County, in MichaelmasTerm, presented to the Lord Cheif Justice of the Kings Bench, sixe or more names of able persons for that Office. The Lord Chief Justice calling the other Judges into the Exchequer Chamber (where the Attorney General, and the Sollicitour attends) presented three out of that number unto the King, out of which the King pricks one, who stands Sheriffe of the County.
His Power is sufficiently known, to suppress Riots, secure Prisoners, distrain for Debts, execute Writs, return the choice of Knights and Burgesses for Parliament, empannel Juries, attend the Jud… … the Execution of Malefactors, &c.
Several Statutes*9 Edward 2. Lincoln. 4. Ed. 3. 9, 5. Ed. 3. 4. have provided, that no man should be Sheriffe in any County, except he hath land sufficient in the same County, to answer the King and his people. And it is remarkable, that since the beginning of that Office, it appeareth not upon any Record, that ever any Sheriffe pro tempore failed in his Estate, but was responsible in his place. Whereas it is too plain by sad Precedents, that some Receivers (being men of meaner estates) have.
Sheriffes are bound to abide in their proper persons, within the*4 Hen. 4. 5. County, that they may the more effectually attend their Office. And in our Remembrance, some great persons, whose Activity in Parliament was suspected, have been made Sheriffes to keep them out of harms way, and confine them at home. But later years have dispenced with such critical Niceties, (unreasonable that the Sheriffe himself should be a Prisoner in his own County) allowing him more liberty on the providing of an able Deputy in his absence.
Though I will not avouch it true, there may be somewhat of truth in their spiteful observation, who maintain, that the Shrevalty in ancient times was Honos sine Onere, in the middle times Honos cum onere, and in our days, little better than Onus sine honore, though … trust the Office will now be restored to its former honour.
Honos sine onere, An honour without a burden. As when Prince Edward the first, was for many years together High-Sheriffe of Bedford and Buckingham-shire; and many prime Peers of the Land, were Honorary Sheriffes, gracing the place with accepting it; living where they pleased themselves, and appointing their Substitutes to transact the businesse of the County.
Honos cum onere, An Honour with a burden, From King Edward the Third, till within our Remembrance. For the principal Gentry in every shire, of most ancient extractions and best Estates, were deputed for that place, keeping great Attendance and Hospitality: So that as some transcripts hath for the fairness of their Character not only evened, but exceeded the Original, the Vice-comes have pro tempore equalled the Count himself and greatest Lords in the Land for their Magnificence.
Onus sine honore, A Burden without Honour, when it was obtruded on many as a punishment for the trouble and charge thereof, and laid as a burden, not on the back of that horse which was best able to carry it, but who was least able to cast it off, great persons by friends and favour easily escaping it, whilst it was charged on those of meaner estates: Though I do beleive it found all them Esquires, and did not make any so, as some will suggest.
Hence was it, that many Sheriffs were forced to consult principles of Thrift, not being bound so to serve their Country, as to disserve themselves and ruine their estates; and instead of keeping open houses (as formerly) at the Assises, began to latch (though not lock) their dores, providently reducing it to an ORDINARY expence, and no wise man will conclude them to be the less loyal Subjects, for being the more Provident Fathers.
At the end of every Shire, after the forenamed Catalogue of the Gentry, in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth, I have set down a List of the Sheriffes from the Beginning of King Henry the Second, untill the end of King Charles, carefully collected out of the Records. For I hope that by the former, which I call my Broad (representing the Gentry of one Generation all over England) and this which I term my Long Catalogue, extending it self successively through many Ages, I hope, I say, both being put together, may square out the most eminent of the Antient Gentry, in some tolerable proportion. Most eminent, seeing I confess, neither can reach all the Gentry of the land.
For as in the Catalogue of King Henry the Sixth, many antient Gentlemen were omitted, who were Minors in age, and so uncapable of taking an Oath, so doth not the List of Sheriffs comprehend all the Gentry in the Shire, finding three sorts of people excluded out of the same.
| Such who were | 1. Above | Discharging the Office. |
| 2. Besides | ||
| 3 Beneath |
Above. Such were all of the Peerage in the Land, which since the Reign of King Edward the third were excused I am sure de facto, not imployed in that place, as Inconsistent with their Attendance in Parliament.
Secondly, Such who were Besides the Place, priviledged by their profession from that Office, which may be subdivided into,
1. Swordmen, Imployed in Wars beyond the Seas, thus Sir Oliver Ingham, and Sir John Fastoffe both great men, and richly landed in Norfolk, were never Sheriffes thereof, because imployed in the French Wars, the one under King Edward the Third, the other under King Henry the Fifth.
2. Gownmen, as Iudges, Sergeants at Law, Barristers, Auditors, and other Officers in the Exchequer, &c.
3.*In relation to the present Mode, otherwise they also were Gownmen anciently Cloakmen. Such Courtiers as were the Kings Servants and in ordinary attendance about his Person.
Lastly, Such as were Beneath the Place, as men of too narrow Estates to discharge that Office, especially as it was formerly in the magnificent expensivenesse thereof, though such persons might be Esquires of right ancient Extraction.
And here under favour I conceive, that if a strict Enquiry should be made after the Ancient Gentry of England, most of them would be found amongst such middlesized Persons as are above two hundred, and beneath a Thousand pounds of Annual Revenue. It was the Motto of wise Sir Nicholas Bacon, Mediocria firma, Moderate things are most lasting. Men of great Estates in National Broiles have smarted deeply for their Visible Engagements, to the Ruine of their Families, whereof we have had too many sad Experiments, whilest such persons who are moderately mounted above the level of Common people into a Competency, above want and beneath Envy, have by Gods blessing on their frugality, continued longest in their Conditions, entertaining all alterations in the State, with the less destructive change unto themselves.
Let me add, that I conceive it impossible for any man, and difficult for a Corporation of men, to make a true Catalogue of the English Gentry. Because, what Mathematicians say of a Line, that it is Divisibilis in semper divisibilia, is true hereof, if the Latine were, (which for ought I know, if as usuall is) as Elegant, Addibilis in semper addibilia. Not only because New Gentry will every day be added (and that as I conceive justly too, for why should the Fountain of Honour be stopped, if the Channel of desert be running?) but because ancient Gentry will dayly be newly discovered, though some of them perchance for the present, but in a poor and mean condition, as may appear by this particular.
It happened in the Reign of King James, when Henry Earl of Huntington, was Lieutenant of Leicester-shire, that a Labourers son in that County, was pressed into the Wars, as I take it to go over with Count Mansfield. The Old man at Leicester, requested his Son might be discharged, as being the only Staff of his Age, who by his Industry maintained him and his Mother. The Earl demanded his name, which the man for a long time was loth to tell (as suspecting it a fault for so poor a man to confess a Truth) at last he told his name was Hastings. Cosen Hastings said the Earl, we cannot all be Top Branches of the Tree, though we all spring from the same Root, Your Son my Kinsman shall not be pressed. So good was the meeting of Modesty in a poor, with Courtesie in an Honourable Person, and Gentry I believe in Both. And I have reason to beleive, that some who justly own the Sirnames and blood of Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets (though ignorant of their own extractions) are hid in the heap of Commonpeople, where they find that under a Thatched Cottage, which some of their Ancestors could not enjoy in a Leaded Castle, contentment with quiet and security.
To return to our Catalogue of Sheriffs. I have been bold to make some breif historical Observations upon them, which I hope will not be unpleasing to the Reader, whom I request first to peruse our Notes on Bark-shire, because of their publick Influence on the rest, facilitating some Difficulties which return in the Sheriffes of other Counties.
After we have presented the Sheriffs names, we have annexed their addition, either of estate, as Esquire, or degree, as Knight, Baronet, &c. and this we have done always after, sometimes before K. Henry the Sixth. For, although the Statute of Additions, was made in the first of King Henry the fifth, to Individuifie (as I may say) and separate persons from those of the same name: And although it took present effect in such Suits and Actions, where processe of Utlary lieth, yet was it not universally practiced in other Writings, till the End of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth.
After their additions, we have in a distinct Columel, assigned the places of their Habitation, where we could proceed with any certainty, leaving some blanks to imploy the Industry of others. We have endevoured (as neer as we could) to observe proportion of time, in denoting their places, left otherwise our There be confuted by our Then, the date of the Kings Reign which is prefixed. If sometimes we have made a Prolepsis, with Virgil his Lavinia Litora, I mean if we have placed some Sheriffs too early in their possessions, a little before their Families were fixed there, I hope the candid Reader will either wink or smile at the mistake.
It often commeth to pass, that the same Sheriff in the same Shire, hath two or more fair Seats. This should raise their Gratitude to God, whose own Son was not so well provided, not having where to lay his hand. In this Variety, our Catalogue presenteth but one, sometime the oldest, sometimes the fairest, and sometimes freely to confess) what comes first to my memory. The best is, truth doth not abate thereby, knowing so much Law; that where a man hath an houshold in two places, he shall be said to dwell in both of them; so that this addition in one of them, doth suffice.
Next to the place of Sheriffes, we set down their Arms, whereof largely in the next Chapter. We conclude the Catalogue of Sheriffes with a Comment upon them presenting their most remarkable Actions. Our Husbandmen in Middlesex, make a distinction between Dodding and Threshing of Wheat, the former being only the beating out of the fullest and fairest Grain, leaving what is Lean and Lank to be Threshed out afterwards. Our Comment may be said to have Dodded the Sheriffes of several Counties, insisting only on their most memorable actions, which are extant in our Printed Histories, otherwise my Eyes could not look into lock'd Chests (I mean) pierce into the private Records of Families, carefully concealed and kept in their choicest Cabinet. Besides, such unprinted Records are infinite (understand it in the same sense in which the strengthNahum. 3. of Tire is called * Infinite) too many for one Authour to manage, and therefore are left to such as undertake the Description of several Counties.