By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 191 
lately by Letters Patent, but now) by warrant, signed by the 
Clerk of the Privy Council. 
For a long time the appointments were very irregular, sometimes 
several being named within the same year, sometimes the same 
person continuing his office for several years, sometimes for term 
of life. Many acted by Deputies, whose names are in some lists 
mistaken for Sheriffs. Many of the Pipe Rolls are wanting, and 
the mandates are irregularly preserved. Perfect accuracy in the 
lists is therefore seldom to be expected. 
With respect to the time of year at which the Sheriff always 
entered upon office there is also some uncertainty. Madox (“ Hist. 
of Exchequer,” IJ, 174) says that “they were wont to account for 
the whole term they held their bailiwick, whether a quarter of a 
year, half a year, or a whole year. In process of time they 
generally accounted from Michelmas to Michelmas.” In later 
reigns, the Sheriff has been usually considered to enter at the 
commencement of the old legal year, March 25th. It will therefore 
be borne in mind, that the actual year of a Shrievalty rarely, if 
ever, corresponds exactly either with the regnal year, or with the 
year of our Lord. Lach person is Sheriff in two regnal years, and 
in two years of our Lord. In the case of James I., whose regnal 
year began March 24th, a Sheriff entering on office March 25th, 
would be for 364 days of the first, and for a single day of the 
second regnal year. Under the particular circumstances of Charles 
the First’s death, the Sheriff of that time would be of three regnal 
years. Charles’s regnal years dated from 27th March, so that the 
last Sheriff in his reign, entering on office 25th March, 1648, would 
for that and the following day be reckoned as of “23 Charles;” 
from 27th March, 1648, to 30th January, 1649, as of “24 Charles;”’ 
and from 31st January 1649, to 24th March following, as of “1 
Charles IT.” These examples will be sufficient to explain to the 
reader that a precise description of each separate shrievalty, as to 
regnal years, &c. could not have been given without much elaborate 
reckoning, and a wearisome repetiton of figures. 
