For these reasons, the office of sheriff was not often sought after.
#Where are hue and cry from criminal justice full#
If the people of the county did not pay the full amount of taxes and fines, the sheriff had to makeup the difference from his holdings.įurthermore, the sheriff was expected to serve as host for judges and other dignitaries, providing lavish entertainment at his own expense. To be appointed sheriff was considered a significant honor. Over the next few centuries, the sheriff remained the leading law enforcement officer of the county.
The Magna Carta mentions the sheriff's role nine times, further establishing the importance of the office. This document restored many rights lost by the noblemen and guaranteed certain basic freedoms.
a rebellion of nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Among the sheriff's new duties was that of tax collector. More than ever before the sheriff became an agent of the king. Rule was greatly consolidated under the king and his appointees. The Normans did not believe in local government and centralized their power. the Normans from France defeated the Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. In areas not assigned to a nobleman, the king appointed the sheriffs. As such the noblemen appointed sheriffs for the counties that they controlled. The king distributed large tracts of lands to various noblemen who governed the lands with the king's authority. Over the years, the government became more centralized by concentrating the power in a single ruler, the king. Originally, the tuns ruled themselves through the election of tithingmen and reeves. This principle of direct citizen participation survives today in the procedure known as posse comitatus or posse. Any citizen hearing the alarm was then legally responsible for helping to bring the criminal to justice. If a criminal or escaped suspect was at large, it was the sheriff's responsibility to give the alarm, the hue and cry as it was called.
However, every citizen's duty was to assist the sheriff in keeping the peace. Under England's King Alfred the Great, the sheriff was responsible for maintaining law and order within his county. To distinguish the leader of the hundreds from the leader of the shire, the more powerful leader became known as the shire-reeve (later becoming sheriff - meaning the keeper or chief of the county). Just as the hundreds elected a reeve, each shire had a reeve. A new unit of government, the shire, was formed when groups of hundreds joined together (the shire is the forerunner of the county). Each group of ten tithings, one hundred families, elected its own chief called a gerefa (later shortened to reeve).ĭuring the next two centuries, a number of changes took place in the tithing and hundreds. They elected a leader of each tithing called a tithingman.
Sometime before 700 A.D., the Anglo-Saxons decided to systemize their methods of fighting by forming a system of local self-government based on groups of ten.Įach tun was divided into groups of ten families called a tithing. More than 1200 years ago, England was inhabited by a small group of Anglo-Saxons who lived in rural communities called tuns (later towns). Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up and they stood before the image.” Medieval England “.Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. in the Book of Daniel, which recounts the presence of the sheriff at the setting up of the golden image by the Chaldean King of Babylon, Nebuchadneszzar. The first mention of sheriff is found dated back to 600 B.C.
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