2 4 EXPENSES OF THE SHRIEVALTY. 



Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals* possessed no record of 

 him later than 1610. His son Francis seems to have been 

 nominated as a magistrate for the county in r624, but not to 

 have qualified until 1628,,! and to have been, two years later, 

 elected, when in his 55th year, to fill the office of the 

 shrievalty. In some respects, it might be that the expenses 

 attached to this office in the seventeenth century were less than 

 they are now, for life was simpler, but it must be remembered 

 that, not only had money then a higher purchasing power, but 

 the High Sheriff was probably a greater personage than he 

 now is, and thus the display, though apparently less, might 

 possibly in reality be greater, in comparison with the usual 

 simplicity of the times. The High Sheriff, at any rate, had 

 no gorgeous coach in which to meet the Judge, and convey him 

 to the Shire Hall. As a matter of fact, the roads were not 

 such that carriages could well have travelled over them, even 

 if the ordinary country gentleman possessed such a luxury, 

 which is extremely improbable, as even in London coaches 

 were only then beginning to be generally used. 



Mr. High Sheriff Bradshawe evidently depended upon his 

 saddle-horse for his official work, as did everybody in those 

 days, and having ridden, probably, the whole way from Brad- 

 shaw, he would in all likelihood have changed horses, once at 

 least, on the journey. In this case he appears to have done 

 so at Kirk Ireton,| where he is charged both for the keep of 

 the horse he left and for that of his men, as well as for the 

 hire of another horse. The reason why the High Sheriff for 

 the county of Derby should have been charged for horse hire 

 and expenses at Leicester§ is a matter for speculation. It is by 

 no means improbable that it might have been with respect 

 to some arrangement with the High Sheriff for the county of 

 Leicester concerning the escort of the judges then on circuit. 

 The High Sheriff was bound to attend them as far as the 

 boundary of his own county, where they were met by the High 

 Sheriff of the county they were entering with a retinue of armed 



* Vol. i., p. 38. J p. 40, post. 



t Ibid., cf., pp. 35, 36, 38. § p. 33. 



