8 



By G. PouLBTT ScEOPE, Esq., M.P. 



5N tlic times preceding the Conquest, the Saxon dignity of 

 * Schireman,' or 'Ealdorman' corresponded to the Norman 

 one of " Count," afterwards anglicised into Earl ; both being 

 rendered in the Latin of cotemporary Chroniclers by " Comes, " 

 and the 'Shire' or 'County' by "Comitatus." The Saxon Earl 

 was in fact the ruler of the shire ; who in peace presided, with the 

 Bishop, in the shire-gemot and other Courts of Justice, and in 

 war led the forces of the shire to battle.^ He received, through his 

 Deputy the "Yice-Comes" or Sheriff {Shire-reeve, collector of 

 taxes in the shire) the whole or a portion of the profits, to the 

 King's use or to his own. The best authorities are of opinion that 

 for some time subsequent to the Conquest, the grant of an Earl- 

 dom conferred the chieftainship and absolute command over 

 the county.^ But before long these large administrative and 

 military powers appear to have been withdrawn, except in the case 

 of the Counties Palatine. The chief civil and military authority 

 within other counties was administered by the Sheriff, as the 

 King's officer, not the Earl's. Whatever power the latter 

 exercised was solely by reason of such territorial possessions 

 (Baronies or Knight's services) as he might hold there; and the 

 pecuniary profits of his Earldom consisted in the receipt of " the 

 third penny " of all pleas levied in the coimty courts. This was 

 his recognized legal perquisite, and paid over to him by the Sheriff. 

 The investiture with the dignity of an Earl was accompanied from 

 the earliest times by the girding on of the sword by the Sovereign 



• Selden's letter to Viucout, prefixed to his Discovery of Errors. 

 2 Dugdalo Preface to IJarouage. 



