The history of the Office
of Sheriff is really a history of man's self-government.
While some historians maintain that the Office
of Sheriff derives from either the Roman proconsul, or the Arab Sharif,
(nobleman), it is generally accepted that the Office goes back historically
to Anglo-Saxon England, (A.D. 500-1066).
Under Anglo-Saxon rule it was the duty of
the citizens themselves to see that the law was not broken, and if it was,
to catch the offenders. All of the males in the community between
the ages 12 and 60 were responsible for this duty. They were organized
in groups of about ten families, and each group was called a "tything":
At their head was a "thythingman." Each member of the tything was
held responsible for the good behavior of the others. Ten tythings
were led by a "reeve."
Under Alfred the Great, (A.D. 871-901), reeves
began to be combined, forming "shires" or counties. Each shire was
led by a reeve.
For minor offenses, people accused of crimes
were brought before the local "folk moot." More serious cases went
to the "Shire Court" which came under the "shire reeve," (meaning "keeper
and chief of his county"), who came to be known as the Sheriff.
In A.D. 1116, King Henry I established a
new penal code. While the Crown reserved to itself the power to punish
for violations of the penal code, it delegated to the Sheriff the power
to investigate and arrest.
When settlers left England to colonize the
New World, they took with them many of their governmental forms.
When the first counties were established in Virginia in 1634, the office
of Sheriff in America began.
By the time of the American Revolution, all
of the colonies had Sheriffs. When the American frontier began to
move westward, so did the Sheriff. The 19th century was the golden
age of the American Sheriff, with characters like Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt
Earp, and Texas John Slaughter becoming a colorful part of American history.