The Government of the County in England

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900105
• Author: B. Keith-Lucas
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

44

THE

GOVERNMENT

OF

THE

COUNTY

IN

ENGLAND

B.

KEITH-LUCAS

University

of

Oxford

HISTORY

HE

ORIGIN

of

the

English

counties

or

shires

is

hidden

in

the

mists

of

the

Middle

Ages.

Bishop

Stubbs

stated

that

&dquo;the

constitutional

machinery

of

the

shire

represents

either

the

national

organization

of

the

several

divisions

created

by

West

Saxon

conquest;

or

that

of

the

early

settlements

which

united

in

the

Mercian

Kingdom

as

it

advanced

west-

wards ;

or

the

rearrangement

by

the

West

Saxon

Dynasty

of

the

whole

of

England

on

the

principles

already

at

work

in

its

own

shires.&dquo;

1 Whatever

their

early

history,

by

the

time

of

the

Norman

Conquest

the

whole

of

England

was

divided

into

counties

or

shires.

The

principal

officers

of

the

shire

as

it

existed

in

the

eleventh

century

were

the

bishop,

the

ealdorman

and

the

shirereeve

or

sheriff.

Of

these,

only

the

sheriff

continued

for

long

to

play

any

part

in

the

secular

government,

as

the

agent

and

representative

of

the

central

authority.’

The

sheriff

was

both

the

administrative

officer,

comparable

in

some

ways

with

the

pref et

of

modern

France,

and

the

presiding

officer

of

the

county

court

or

sheriff’s

court,

where

the

administrative

and

financial

busi-

ness

of

the

county

was

conducted

by

the

assembled

suitors

-

bishops

and

barons,

landowners,

and

representatives

of

the

minor

divisions

or

hundreds.

In

the

course

of

time

the

right

and

duty

of

attending

this

court

came

to

be

restricted

to

the

freeholders,

and

it

was

they

who,

until

the

middle

of

the

nineteenth

century,

continued

to

elect

the

knights

of

the

shire

to

repre-

sent

the

county

in

Parliament,

and

at

the

great

open

air

assemblies

or

county

meetings

to

express

the

common

opinions

of

the

county

on

public

affairs.

3

By

the

sixteenth

century

the

importance

of

the

county

court

was

much

reduced,

and

the

responsibility

of

the

sheriff

was

lessened,

as

the

real

gov-

ernment

of

the

counties

passed

into

the

hands

of

the

magistrates

in

Quarter

Sessions.

The

magistrates

or

justices

of

the

peace

were

country

gentlemen,

1

William

Stubbs,

The

Constitutional

History

of

England

(2d

ed.;

Oxford:

Clarendon

Press,

1875),

I,

110.

2

William

S.

Holdsworth,

A

History

of

English

Law

(3d

ed.;

London:

Methuen

&

Co.,

1922),

I,

7,

49-53.

3

Ibid.,

I,

70;

B.

Keith-Lucas,

"County

Meetings,"

Law

Quarterly

Review,

LXX

(1954),

109.