SHE 
racter: corolla one-petalled, funiiel-foriii, 
superior ; seeds two, three-toothed. There 
are three species. 
SHERIFF. As keeper of the King’s^ 
peace, the sheriff is the first man in the 
county, and superior in rank to any noble- 
man therein, during his office. He may ap- 
prehend and commit to prison all persons 
who break the peace, or attempt to break 
it, and may bind any one in a recognizance 
to keep tire King’s peace. He may, and 
is bound ex officio, to pursue and take all 
traitors, murderers, felons, and other mis- 
doers, and commit them to gaol for safe 
custody. He is also to defend his country 
against any of the King’s enemies, when they 
come into the land ; and for this purpose, 
as well as for keeping the peace and pursu- 
ing felons, he may command all the people 
of his county to attend him, which is called 
the posse comitatus, or power of the county j 
which summons every person above fifteen 
years of age, and under the degree of a 
peer, is bound to attend, upon warning, on 
pain of fine and imprisonment. Yet he 
cannot exercise the office of a justice of the 
peace, for then this inconvenience would 
arise, that he should command himself to 
execute his own precepts. 
The sheriff has a jurisdiction both in cri- 
minal and civil cases, and therefore he has 
two courts; his town court, for criminal 
causes, which is the King’s court; the 
other is his county court^ for civil causes, 
and this is the court of the sheriff himself. 
When the new sheriff is appointed and 
sworn, he ought, at or before the next 
county court, to deliver a writ of discharge 
to the old sheriff, who is to set over all the 
prisoners in the gaol, severally by their 
names (together with all the writs), pre- 
cisely, by view and indenture between the 
two sheriffs ; wherein must be comprehended 
all the actions wliich the old sheriff has 
against every prisoner, though the execu- 
tions are of record ; and till the delivery of 
the prisoners to the new sheriti; they re- 
main in the custody of the old sheriff, not- 
withstanding the letters patent of appoint- 
ment, the writ of discharge, and the writ 
of delivery. Neither is the new sheriff 
obliged to receive the prisoners, but at the 
"aol ; but the office of the old sheriff ceases 
when the writ of discharge is brought to 
him. 
By S George I. c. 15, it shall not be law- 
ful for any person to buy, sell, let, or take 
to farm the office of under sheriff, or deputy 
sheriff, or seal keeper, county clerk, shire 
’ clerk, gaoler, bailiff, or any other office per- 
SHI 
taining to the office of high sheriff, or to 
contract for any of the said offices, on for- 
feiture of 5002. ; one moiety to his Majesty, 
the other to such as shall sue in any court 
at Westminster, within two years after the 
offence. 
Provided that nothing in this act shall 
prevent any high sheriff from constituting 
an under sheriff, or deputy sheriff, as by law 
he may ; nor to hinder tlie under sheriff in 
any case of the high sheriff’s death, when 
he acts as high sheriff, from constituting a 
deputy ; nor to hinder such sheriff, or under 
sheriff', from receiving the lawful perquisites 
of his office, or for taking security for the due 
answering the same ; nor to hinder such sheriff 
or under sheriff, deputy sheriff, seal keeper, 
&c. from accounting to the high sheriff for 
all such lawful fees as shall be by them 
taken, nor for giving security so to do, or 
to hinder the high sheriff from allowing a 
salary to his under sheriff, &c. or other offi- 
cers. And if any sheriff shall die before the 
expiration of his year, or before he be su- 
perseded, the under sheriff shall neverthe- 
less continue in his office, and mcecute the 
same in the name of the deceased, till an- 
other sheriff be appointed and sworn ; and 
the under sheriff shall be answerable for 
the execution of the office during such in- 
terval, as the high sheriff would have been; 
and the security given by the under sheriff 
and his pledges shall stand a security to the 
King, and all persons whatsoever, for the 
performing his office during such interval. 
There is no particular qualification in 
lands required for the office of sheriff, but 
a sheriff cannot be elected to serve in par- 
liament for the county of which' he is she- 
riff. The under sheriff performs nearly all 
the duties of the sheriff. He is not to hold 
his office above one year, under the penalty 
of 2001. And no under sheriff or bailiff 
shall practice as an attorney ; but this is so 
openly evaded, that no person is appointed 
under sheriff except an attorney. 
SHIELD, an ancient weapon of defence, 
in tlie form of a light buckler, borne on 
the arm to turn off lances, darts, &c. 
Shield, in heraldry, the escutcheon or 
field on which the heal ings of coats of arms 
are placed. 
SHILLING, an English silver coin, equal 
to 12 pence, or the 20th part of a pound 
sterling. This was a Saxon coin, being the 
48th part of their pound weight. Its value 
at first was 5 pence ; but it was reduced to 
4 pence about a century before the con- 
quest. After the conquest, the French so- 
lidus of 12 pence, which was in use among 
