the most general name for the fiscal, administrative and executive officer among the anglosaxons was geréfa, or as it is written in very early documents geróefa[358]: but the peculiar functions of the individuals comprehended under it, were further defined by a prefix compounded with it, as scírgeréfa, the reeve of the shire or sheriff: túngeréfa the reeve of the farm or bailiff. the exact meaning and etymology of this name have hitherto eluded the researches of our best scholars, and yet perhaps few words have been more zealously investigated[359]: if i add another to the number of attempts to solve the riddle, it is only because i believe the force of the word will become much more
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evident when we have settled its genuine derivation; and that philology has yet a part to play in history which has not been duly recognized. one of the oldest and most popular opinions was that which connected the name with words denoting seniority; thus, with the german adjective grau, anglosaxon grǽg, grey. there was however little resemblance between geréfa and grǽg, the anglosaxon forms, and the whole of this theory was applicable only to the latino-frankish form graphio, or gravio. the frequent use of words denoting advanced age, as titles of honour,—among which ealdor princeps, senior seigneur, ða yldestan primates, and many others, will readily occur to the reader,—favoured this opinion, which was long maintained: but especially in germany, it has been entirely exploded by grimm in his rechtsalterthümer[360], and proof adduced that there cannot be the slightest connection between graf and grau.
more plausibility lay in the etymology of geréfa adopted by spelman; this rested upon the assumption that geréfa was equivalent to gereáfa, and that it was derived from reáfan, to plunder; this view was strengthened by the circumstance of the word being frequently translated by exactor, the levying of fines and the like being a characteristic part of a reeve’s duties. but this view is unquestionably erroneous: in the first place geréfa could not have been universally substituted for the more accurate
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ggereáfa, which last word never occurs, any more than on the other hand does réfan for reáfan. secondly, an anglosaxon geréfa, if for gereáfa, would necessarily imply a high-dutch garaupjo, a word which we not only do not find, but which bears no sort of resemblance to krávo and grávo which we do find[361]. lambarde’s derivation of geréfa from gereccan, regere, may be consigned to the same storehouse of blunders as lipsius’s graf from γράφειν. again, as words compounded with ge- and ending in -a, often denote a person who participates with others in something expressed by the root, geréfa has been explained to be one who shares in the roof, i. e. the kings roof: and this has been supported by the fact that graf is equivalent to comes, and that at an early period the comites are found occupying the places of geréfan. but a fatal objection to this etymon lies in the omission of the h from geréfa, which would not have been the case had hróf really been the root. grimm says, “i will venture another supposition. in old high-dutch rávo meant tignum, tectum (old norse rǽfr, tectum), perhaps also domus, aula; garávjo, girávjo, girávo, would thus mean comes, socius, like gistallo, and gisaljo, gisello (gram. ii. 736)[362].” there is however a serious objection to this hypothesis: were it admitted, the anglosaxon word must have been
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gerǽfa, not geréfa for geróefa, that is, the vowel in the root must have been a long ǽ, not a long é, springing out of and representing a long ó. i am naturally very diffident of my own opinion in a case of so much obscurity, and where many profound thinkers have failed of success; still it seems to me that geréfa may possibly be referable to the word róf, clamor, róf, celeber, famosus, and a verb rófan or réfan, to call aloud: if this be so, the name would denote bannitor, the summoning or proclaiming officer, him by whose summons or proclamation the court and the levy of the freemen were called together; and this suggestion answers more nearly than any other to the nature of the original office: in this sense too, a reeve’s district is called his mánung, bannum[363]. in this comprehensive generality lay the possibility of so many different degrees of authority being designated by one term; so that in the revolutions of society we have seen the german markgraf and burggraf assuming the rank of sovereign princes, while the english borough-reeve has remained the chief magistrate of a petty corporation, or the pinder of a village has been designated by the title of a hogreeve.
whatever were the original signification of the word, i cannot doubt that it is of the highest antiquity, as well as the office which it denotes. in all probability it was borne by those elected chiefs who presided over the freemen of the gá in their meetings, and delivered the law to them in their
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districts[364]. throughout the germanic constitutions, and especially in this country, the geréfa always appears in connexion with judicial functions[365]: he is always the holder of a court of justice: thus:—“eádweard the king commandeth all the reeves; that ye judge such just dooms, as ye know to be most righteous, and as it in the doombook standeth. fear not, on any account, to pronounce folkright; and let every suit have a term, when it may be fullfilled, that ye may then pronounce.” again:—“i will that each reeve have a gemót once in every four weeks; and so act that every man may have his right by law; and every suit have an end and a term when it shall be brought forward.”
upon this point it is unnecessary to multiply evidence, and i shall content myself with saying that wherever there was a court there was a reeve, and wherever there was a reeve, he held some sort of court for the guidance and management of persons for whose peaceful demeanour he was responsible. from this it is to be inferred that the geréfan were of very different qualities, possessed very different degrees of power, and had very different functions to perform, from the geréfa who gave law to the shire, down to the geréfa who managed some private landowner’s estate. it will be convenient
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to take the different classes of geréfan seriatim, and collect under each head such information as we can now obtain from our legal or historical monuments.
heáhgeréfa.—in general the word coupled with geréfa enables us to judge of the particular functions of the officer; but this is not the case with the heáhgeréfa or high reeve, a name of very indefinite signification, though not very rare occurrence. it is obvious that it really denotes only a reeve of high rank, i believe always a royal officer; but it is impossible to say whether the rank is personal or official; whether there existed an office called the heáhgeréfscipe (highreevedom) having certain duties; or whether the circumstance of the shire- or other reeve being a nobleman in the king’s confidence gave to him this exceptional title. i am inclined to believe that they are exceptional, and perhaps in some degree similar to the missi of the franks,—officers dispatched under occasional commissions to perform functions of supervision, hold courts of appeal, and discharge other duties, as the necessity of the case demanded; but that they are not established officers found in all the districts of the kingdom, and forming a settled part of the machinery of government. in this particular sense, our judges going down upon their several circuits, under a commission of jail delivery, are the heáhgeréfan of our day.
we are told in the saxon chronicle that in the year 778, æðelbald and heardberht of northumberland
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slew three heáhgeréfan, namely ealhwulf the son of bosa, cynewulf and ecga: and the immediate consequence of this appears to have been the expulsion of æðelred, and the succession of ælfwold to the throne of northumberland. these high-reeves were therefore probably military officers of æðelred, and simeon of durham, in recording the events of the same year calls them dukes, duces.
again, in 780, simeon mentions osbald and æðelheard as dukes, but the chronicle calls them heáhgeréfan.[366]
in a preceding chapter i have shown that the dux is properly equivalent to the ealdorman, but this can hardly have been the case with the heáhgeréfa. again, in 1001, the chronicle mentions three high-reeves, æðelweard, leófwine and kola, and apparently draws a distinction by immediately naming eádsige, the king’s reeve, not his high-reeve. in 1002 the chronicle again mentions æfíc, a high-reeve, who though a great favourite of the king, certainly never attained the rank of a duke or ealdorman, or, as far as we know, ever performed any public administrative functions. he was a minion of æðelred’s, but not an officer of the anglosaxon state.
scírgeréfa or sheriff.—the scírgeréfa is, as his name denotes, the person who stands
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at the head of the shire, pagus or county: he is also called scírman or scírigman[367]. he is properly speaking the holder of the county-court, scírgemót or folcmót, and probably at first was its elected chief. but as this geréfa was at first the people’s officer, he seems to have shared the fate of the people, and to have sunk in the scale as the royal authority gradually rose: during the whole of our historical period we find him exercising only a concurrent jurisdiction, shared in and controlled by the ealdorman on the one hand and the bishop on the other. the latter interruption may very probably have existed from the very earliest periods, and the heathen priest have enjoyed the rights which the christian prelate maintained: but the intervention of the ealdorman appears to be consistent only with the establishment of a central power, exercised in different districts by means of resident superintendents, or occasional commissioners especially charged with the defence of the royal interests. in the anglosaxon legislation even of the eighth century, the ealdorman is certainly head of the shire[368]; but there is, as far as i know, no evidence of his sitting in judgment in the folcmót without the sheriff, while there is evidence that the sheriff sat without the ealdorman. usually the court was held under the presidency of the ealdorman and bishop, and of the scírgeréfa,
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who from his later title of vicecomes, vicedominus, was probably looked upon as the ealdorman’s deputy,—a strange revolution of ideas. the shiremoot at ægelnóðes stán in the days of cnut was attended by æðelstán, bishop of hereford, ranig the ealdorman, eádwine his son, leófwine and ðurcytel the white, tofig the king’s missus or messenger, and bryning the scírgeréfa[369]. but in a celebrated trial of title to land at wouldham in kent, where archbishop dunstán himself was a party concerned, the case seems to have been disposed of by wulfsige the shireman or sheriff alone[370]. the bishop of rochester, being in some sort a party to the suit, could probably not take his place as a judge, and the ealdorman is not mentioned at all. again in an important trial of title to land at snodland in kent, there is no mention whatever of the ealdorman: the king’s writ was sent to the archbishop; and the sheriff leófríc and the thanes of east and west kent met to try the cause at canterbury[371]. it may then be concluded that the presence of the sheriff was necessary in any case, while that of the ealdorman might be dispensed with[372]. by the provisions of our later kings it appears that the scírgemót or sheriff’s court for the county was to be holden twice in the year, and before this were
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brought all the most important causes, and such as exceeded the competence of the hundred[373].
but the judicial functions of the scírgeréfa were by no means all that he had to attend to. it is clear that the execution of the law was also committed to his hands. the provisions of the council of greatanleah conclude with these words:—“but if any of my reeves will not do this, and care less about it than we have commanded, let him pay the fine for disobeying me, and i will find another reeve who will do it[374];” where reference is generally made to all the enactments of the council. and the same king requires his bishops, ealdormen and reeves (the principal shire-officer) to maintain the peace upon the basis laid down in the judicia civitatis londoniae, that is to put in force the enactments therein contained, on pain of fines and forfeiture[375]. in pursuance also of this part of their duty, they were commanded to protect the abbots on all secular occasions[376], and to see the church dues regularly paid; viz. the tithes, churchshots, soulshots and plough alms[377]. and eádgár, æðelred and cnut arm them with the power to levy for tithe and inflict a heavy forfeiture upon those who
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withhold it[378]. it is also very clear from several passages in the laws that the sheriff might be called upon to witness bargains and sales, so as to warrant them afterwards if necessary. æðelstán enacts[379]:—“let no man exchange any property, without the witness of the reeve, or the mass-priest, or the landlord, or the treasurer, or some other credible man:” and though the scírgeréfa is not particularly mentioned here, it is obvious that he is meant, for a subsequent law of eádmund, following this enactment of æðelstán, directs that no one shall bargain or receive strange cattle without the witness of the highest reeve (“summi praepositi”), the priest, the treasurer or the port-reeve[380]. he was further to exercise a supreme police in his county: it is declared by æðelred[381],—“if there be any man who is untrue to all the people, let the king’s reeve go and bring him under surety, that he may be held to justice, to them that accused him. but if he have no surety, let him be slain, and laid in the foul,”—that is, i presume, not buried in consecrated ground.
from this also it appears probable that the geréfa was the officer to conduct the execution of criminals in capital cases, as he remains to this day; but as far as i remember, there is no instance of this duty recorded. the regulations respecting mints
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and coinage seem also to show that this part of the public service was under the superintendence of the scírgeréfa[382]. as the principal political officer, and chief of the freemen in the shire, it was further his duty to promulgate the laws enacted by the king and his witena gemót, and take a pledge from the members of the county, to observe these: and it is to be concluded that this was solemnly done in the county-court[383].
the scírgeréfa was also the principal fiscal officer in the county. it was undoubtedly his duty to levy all fines that accrued to the king from offenders, and to collect such taxes as the land paid for public purposes. we have unhappily no pipe-rolls of the anglosaxon period, which would have thrown the greatest light upon the social condition of england; but we have a precept of cnut, addressed to æðelríc the sheriff of kent, and the other principal officers and thanes of the county, commanding that archbishop æðelnóð shall account only as far as he had done before æðelríc became sheriff, and ordering that in future no sheriff shall demand more of him[384]. from this it appears that even the lands of the archbishop himself were not exempt from the sheriff’s authority in fiscal matters, although there can be little doubt that at this period the prelate had a grant of sacu and sócn, or complete
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immunity from the sheriff’s power in judicial questions. and we shall have little difficulty in admitting that, if he possessed this authority in the case of the archbishop, he exercised it in that of other less distinguished landowners. it has been already shown that the king possessed certain profitable rights in, and received contributions from, the estates of folcland in private hands: these were exercised and collected by the scírgeréfa. it is probable that the zeal of this officer had sometimes overstepped the bounds of the law, and induced him to burthen the free landowner for the benefit of the crown; for we find cnut enacting[385]: “this is the alleviation which it is my pleasure to secure to all the people, of that which hath heretofore too much oppressed them. first, i command all my reeves that they justly provide for me on my own, and maintain me therewith; and that no man need give them anything, as farm-aid, unless he choose. and if after this any one demand a fine, let him be liable in his wergyld to the king.”
the law then goes on to regulate the king’s rights in case of intestacy, the amount of heriot payable by different classes, the freedom of succession in the wife and children, and the freedom of marriage both for widow and maiden. and as all these laws, numbered respectively from § 70 to 75, appear to be dependent upon one another, and to form a chapter of alleviations by themselves, i conclude
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that the sheriffs had been guilty of exaction in confiscating the estates of intestates, demanding extravagant heriots and reliefs, and imposing fines for licence to marry,—extortions familiar enough under the norman rule. it was moreover the sheriff’s duty to seize into the king’s hands all lands and chattels belonging to felons, which would, in the event of a conviction become forfeit to the crown: of this we have instances. about a.d. 900, one helmstán was guilty of theft; eanwulf penhearding, who was then sheriff, immediately seized all the property he had at tisbury, except the land which helmstán could not forfeit, as it was only ordláf’s lǽn or beneficium[386]. at the close of the tenth century, æscwyn a widow had become implicated in the theft of some title-deeds by her own son: judgment was given against her in one of the royal courts, whereby all her property became forfeited to the king: wulfstán the sheriff of kent accordingly seized bromley and fawkham, her manors[387]. there is of course every probability that the sheriff was charged with certain disbursements, required by the public service, and that he rendered a periodical account both of receipts and expenditure, to the officers who then represented the royal exchequer; but upon this part of the subject we are unhappily without any evidence.
the sheriff was naturally the leader of the militia, posse comitatus, or levy of the free men, who served under his banner, as the different lords with their dependents
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served under the royal officers, the church vassals under the bishop’s or abbot’s officer, and all together under the chief command of the ealdorman or duke. it was his business to summon them, and to command them in the field, during the period of their service: and he thus formed the connecting link between the military power of the king and the military power of the people, for purposes both of offence and defence.
in the earliest periods, the office was doubtless elective, and possibly even to the last the people may have enjoyed theoretically, at least, a sort of concurrent choice. but i cannot hesitate for a moment in asserting that under the consolidated monarchy, the scírgeréfa was nominated by the king, with or without the acceptance of the county-court, though this in all probability was never refused[388]. the language of the laws which continually adopt the words, our reeves, where none but the sheriffs are intended, clearly shows in what relation these officers stood to the king: and as the latter indisputably possessed the power of removing, he probably did not want that of appointing them[389].
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on one occasion indeed æðelstân distinctly declares, that if his sheriffs neglect their duty, he, the king, will find others to do it[390]. the means by which the dignity of the sheriff was supported are similar to those noticed in the case of the ealdorman. he received a proportion of the fines payable to the king: he was, we may presume, always a considerable landowner in the shire; indeed, several of those whom we know to have held the office, were amongst the greatest landowners in their respective districts[391]. it is even possible that there may have been some provision in land, attached to the office, for i meet occasionally with such words as geréf-land, geréf-mǽd, where the form of the composition denotes, not the land or meadow of some particular sheriff, but of the sheriff generally. as leader of the shire-fyrd or armed force, the geréfa would have a share of the booty; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that his influence and good-will were secured at times by the voluntary offerings of neighbours and dependents.
the writs of the kings, touching judicial processes, and other matters connected with the public service, were directed to the ealdorman, bishop and sheriff of the district, as a general rule. from these writs, which are numerous in the eleventh century, we learn some of the names of the gentlemen who filled the office at that period: and as
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those names are not without interest i have collected from such documents as we possess a list of sheriffs for different counties.
berks
cyneweard[392].
gódric[393].
devonshire
hugh the norman[394].
dorsetshire
ælfred[395].
essex
leófcild[396].
rodbeard steallere[397].
hampshire
eádsige[398].
eádnóð steallere[399].
herefordshire
ælfnóð[400].
bryning[401].
osbearn[402].
ulfcytel[403].
hertfordshire
ælfstán[404].
esgár steallere[405].
huntingdonshire
ælfríc[406].
cyneríc[407].
kent
æðelríc[408].
æðelwine[409].
esgár steallere[410].
leófríc[411].
osweard[412].
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wulfsige preóst[413].
wulfstán[414].
lincolnshire
osgód[415].
middlesex
ælfgeát[416].
esgár steallere[417].
ulf[418].
norfolk
eádríc[419].
norfolk and suffolk
tolig[420].
northampton
marleswegen[421].
norðman[422].
somersetshire
godwine[423].
tofig[424].
tauid or touid[425].
suffolk
ælfríc[426].
tolig[427].
warwickshire
uua[428].
wiltshire
eánwulf penhearding[429].
worcestershire
leófríc[430].
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it is possible that increased research may extend this list of sheriffs, and much to be regretted that our information is so scanty as it is. we have no means of deciding whether the office was an annual one, or how its duration was limited. the kentish list shows that the clergy were neither exempt nor excluded from its toils or advantages: and the position of wulfsige the priest and sheriff recalls to us the earlier times when priest and judge may have been synonymous terms among the nations of the north[431]. i now proceed to a third class, the
cyninges geréfa, or royal reeve.—there is some difficulty with regard to this officer, because in many cases where the cyninges geréfa is mentioned, it is plain that the scírgeréfa is meant. for example, ælfred twice mentions the cyninges geréfa as sitting in the folcmót and administering justice there[432], which is hardly to be understood of any but the sheriff. however it is consistent with the general principles of teutonic society that as there was a scírgeréfa to do justice between freeman and freeman, so also there should be a cyninges geréfa, before whom the king’s tenants should ultimately stand to right, and who more particularly administered the king’s sacu and.
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sócn in his own private lands. to this officer, under the ealdorman, would belong the investigation of those causes which the king’s manorial courts could not decide: perhaps he might possess some sort of appellate jurisdiction: and it cannot be doubted that it was his duty to superintend the management of the king’s private domains, and to lead the array of the king’s private tenants in the general levy. it is therefore not unlikely that this officer may be identical with the heáhgeréfa already noticed. but in many cases where a king’s reeve is mentioned, and where we cannot understand the term of the scírgeréfa, it is clear that a wícgeréfa or burh- or túngeréfa are intended, and that they are called royal officers merely because the wíc, burh or tún happened to be royal property. the chronicle under the year 787 mentions a geréfa who was slain by the northmen:—“this year king beorhtríc took to wife eádburh, king offa’s daughter: and in his time first came three ships of northmen from hæretha land. and then the geréfa rode to the place, and would have driven them to the king’s tún, for he knew not who they were: and there on the spot they slew him. these were the first danish ships that ever sought the land of the english.”
now florence of worcester under the same date tells us that this officer was “regis praepositus,” that is, a king’s reeve: and henry of huntingdon improves him into a sheriff[433], “praepositus regis illius provinciae:” æðelweard however, who is
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obviously much better acquainted with the details of the story than his norman successors, records that this officer’s name was beadoheard, and that he was the royal burggrave in dorchester[434].
in 897 again we hear of the death of lucemon, in battle against the danes: the chronicle calls him “ðæs cyninges geréfa:” but henry of huntingdon, “praepositus regalis exercitus[435],” which may merely mean the officer appointed to lead the royal force, that is a king’s reeve in the sense which i have attempted to establish on a preceding page. other king’s reeves mentioned, are ælfweard, (chron. sax. an. 1011), and ælfgár (cod. dipl. no. 693).
it may admit of doubt whether in the parts of england which were subject to danish rule, and only re-annexed to the westsaxon crown by conquest, the same institutions prevailed as in the rest of the country. in the laws of æðelred[437] we hear of a king’s reeve in the wapentake and in the community of the five burgs. these are not sheriffs; the former rather resembling the hundred-man; the latter a burhgeréfa, but with extended powers, perhaps approaching those of a sheriff, or the northumbrian heáhgeréfa already alluded to in this chapter.
the burhgeréfa.—in a fortified town, which i take to be the strict meaning of burh, there
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was an officer under this title. we know but little of his peculiar powers; but there is every reason to conclude that they were similar to those of other geréfan, according to the circumstances in which he was placed. if the town were free, it is possible that he may have been the popular officer, a sort of sheriff where the town is itself a county. but this is improbable, and it is much more likely that the burhgeréfa was essentially a royal officer, charged with the maintenance and defence of a fortress. such a one i take badoheard to have been in dorchester; similarly we hear of godwine, praepositus civitatis oxnafordi[438], æðelwig praepositus in bucingaham[439], and wynsige also praepositus in oxnaforda[439], osulf and ylcærðon both praepositi in padstow[440]; and finally ælfred, the reeve of bath[441]. it was this officer’s duty to preside in the burhgemót, which was appointed to be held thrice in the year[442], and he was most likely the representative of the towns-people, so far as these were unfree, in the higher courts. it is also probable that he was their military leader, and that he was expected to be present at sales and exchanges in order to be able to warrant transactions, if impeached. lastly he was to see that tithes were duly rendered from his fellow-citizens[443]. from a very interesting document just now cited[444], it may be inferred that he possessed considerable power
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in his district, and that persons of rank and wealth were clothed with the office. we there find the reeves of buckingham and oxford granting the rites of christian burial to some saxon gentlemen who had perished in a brawl brought on by an attempt at theft; and the intervention of the king himself seems to have been necessary to prevent the execution of their decree. the burhgeréfa may perhaps be said to have had some of the rights of the aedile and praetor urbanus under the old, or those of the duumvir under the later, provincial constitution of rome. still he seems to have been in some degree subject to the supervision of the ealdorman. i have sometimes thought that he might be compared in part with the burggraf, in part with the vogt of the german towns under the empire; but unfortunately we know too little of our ancient municipal constitution to enable us to carry out this enquiry. we have no means now of ascertaining the duration of his office, the nature of his appointment, or the actual extent of his powers.
portgeréfa.—the portgeréfa is in many respects similar to the burhgeréfa: but as it appears that port is applied rather to a commercial than a fortified town, there are differences between the two offices. in some degree these will have depended upon the comparative power, freedom and organization of the citizens themselves, and i can readily believe that the portreeves of london were much more important personages than the burhreeves of
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oxford or bath. in the smaller towns, it is probable that the court of the portreeve was a sort of pie-powder court; but in the larger, it must have had cognizance of offences against the customs laws, the laws affecting the mint, and the general police of the district. as a general rule i imagine the portgeréfa to have been an elective officer: perhaps in the large and important towns he required at least the assent of the king. in london he holds the place of the sheriff, and the king’s writs are directed to the earl, the bishop and the portreeve[445]. there are two cities in which we hear of portreeves, viz. london and canterbury: in the former we have swétman[446], ælfsige[447], ulf[448], leófstán[449], and the great officer of the royal household, esgár the steallere[450], which alone would be sufficient evidence of the importance attached to the post. in canterbury we read of æðelred[451], leofstán[452], and gódric[453], occupying the same station. again we have ælfsige portgeréfa in bodmin[454], and leófcild portgeréfa in bath[455]. it is worthy of remark that the
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two, ælfsige and leófstán, served the office together in london, and that ulf also occurs as sheriff of middlesex. in the smaller towns especially it must have been a principal part of the portreeve’s duty to witness all transactions by bargain and sale[456]. a portion of his subsistence at least was probably derived from the proceeds of tolls, and fines levied within his district.
wícgeréfa.—the wícgeréfa was a similar officer, in villages, or in such towns as had grown out of villages without losing the name of a village. i presume that he was not concerned with the freemen, but was a kind of steward of the manor, and that his dignity varied with the rank of his employer and the extent of his jurisdiction. however there is so much difficulty in making a clear distinction between port and wíc, that we find wícgeréfa applied to officers who ruled in large and royal cities. thus the saxon chronicle mentions beornwulf under the title of wícgeréfa in winchester[457], whom florence in the same year calls praepositus wintoniensium. and in the laws of hloðhere and eádríc[458], the same title is given to the king’s officer in london, cyninges wícgeréfa. in general i should be disposed to construe the word strictly as a village-reeve, and especially in any case where the village was not royal, but ducal or episcopal property. many places may indeed
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have once been called by the name of wíc which afterwards assumed a much more dignified appellation, together with a much more important social condition.
túngeréfa.—the túngeréfa is literally the reeve of a tún, enclosure, farm, vill or manor: and his authority also must have fluctuated with that of his lord. he is the villicus or bailiff of the estate, and on the royal farms was bound to superintend the cultivation, and keep the peace among the cultivators. in london he appears to have been subordinate to the portgeréfa, and was probably his officer[459]; it was his business to see that the tolls were paid. ælfred commands, in case a man is committed to prison in the king’s tún, that the reeve shall feed him, if necessary[460]. this i suppose to be the túngeréfa, the officer on the spot who would be responsible for his security. so eádgár forbids his reeves to do any wrong to the other men of the tún, in respect to the tracking of strange cattle[461]. here the túngeréfa represents the king, among the class that would in earlier times have formed a court of free markmen. that the túngeréfa was the manager of a royal estate appears plainly from an ordinance of æðelstán, respecting the doles or charities which were to issue from the various farms’ domain[462]. “i æðelstán, with the consent of wulfhelm my archbishop, and all my other bishops and
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god’s servants, command all you my reeves, within my realm, for the forgiveness of my sins, that ye entirely feed one poor englishman, if ye have him, or that ye find another. from every two of my farms, be there given him monthly one amber of meal, and one shank of bacon, or a ram worth four pence, and clothing for twelve months every year. and ye shall redeem one wíteþeów: and let all this be done for the lord’s mercy, and for my sake, under witness of the bishop in whose diocese it may be. and if the reeve neglect this, let him make compensation with thirty shillings, and let the money be distributed to the poor in the tún where this remains unfulfilled, by witness of the bishop.”
lastly, in the law of æðelred[463] i find the tungravius, decimates homines, and presbyter charged with the care of seeing certain alms bestowed and fasts observed; which seems to denote a special authority exercised by the túngeréfa together with the heads of the tithings. the geréfa in a royal vill may easily have been a person of consideration: if the æðelnóð who in 830 was reeve at eastry in kent[464], were such a one, we find from his will that he had no mean amount of property to dispose of.
swángeréfa.—the swángeréfa, as his name denotes, was reeve of that forest-court which till a late period was known in england as the swainmoot. it was his business to superintend the swánas
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or swains, the herdsmen and foresters, to watch over the rights of pasture, and regulate the use which might be made of the forests. it is probably one of the oldest constitutional offices, and may have existed by the same name at a time when the organization in marks was common all over england. from a trial which took place in 825, we find that he had the supervision of the pastures in the shirewood or public forest[465], and from this also it appears that he was under the immediate superintendence and control of the ealdorman. the extended organization which the swána gemót attained under cnut, may be seen in that prince’s constitutions de foresta[466]. it is probable that there were holtgeréfan and wudugeréfan, holtreeves and woodreeves among the saxons, having similar duties to those of the swángeréfa, but i have not yet met with these names. they are, i believe, by no means extinct in many parts of england, any more than the landreeve, a designation still current in devonshire, and probably elsewhere.
wealhgeréfa.—the last officer whom i shall treat of particularly is the wealhgeréfa or welsh-reeve. this singular title occurs in an entry of the saxon chronicle, anno 897. “the same year died wulfríc, the king’s horse-thane, who was also wealhgeréfa.” there can be no dispute as to the meaning of the word, but the functions of the officer designated by it are far from clear. it denotes
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a reeve who had the superintendence of the welsh; but the question where this superintendence was exercised is a very important one. if in the king’s palace, wulfríc was set over a certain number of unfree britons, laeti or even serfs, as their judge and regulator: or he may have had the superintendence of property belonging to ælfred in wales, which is somewhat less probable: or lastly he may have been a margrave, whose mission it was to watch the welsh border, and defend the saxon frontier against sudden incursions. this i think the least probable of all, inasmuch as i find no traces of margraves (mearcgeréfan) in anglosaxon history. on the contrary the marches in this country seem to have been always committed to the care of a duke or ealdorman, not a geréfa. wulfríc’s rank however, which was that of a mariscalcus or marshal, is not inconsistent with so great and distant a command. on the whole therefore i am disposed to believe that he was a royal reeve to whose care ælfred’s welsh serfs were committed, and who exercised a superintendence over them in some one or in all of the royal domains.
the geréfa was not necessarily a royal officer: on the contrary we find bishops, ealdormen, nay simple nobles with them upon their establishment. of course the moment an immunity of sacu and sócn existed upon any estate, the lord appointed a geréfa to hold his court and do right among his men, as the scírgeréfa held court for the freemen in the shire. and if any proof of this were necessary, we might find it in the title socnereve (sócne
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geréfa) which occurs at page 12 of the valuable book known as ‘liber de antiquis legibus,’ but which would have been much more justly entitled annals of the corporation of london. we may be assured that in every vill belonging to a bishop or a lay lord, in every city where there was a cathedral or a castle, there was found a bisceopes or an ealdormannes geréfa, as the case might be, performing such functions for the prelate or the noble, as the king’s geréfa exercised for him; and if there were an immunity, performing every function that the royal officer performed. thus in some towns i can conceive it very possible that the king’s, ealdorman’s and bishop’s reeves may have met side by side and exercised a concurrent jurisdiction: and as the bishop’s geréfa must have led his armed retainers, (at least whenever it pleased the prelate to remember the canons of his church,) this officer may be compared to the vogt, advocatus, vice-dominus or vidame, who fulfilled that duty on the continent. the bishop’s reeve is empowered by the king to aid the sheriff in the forcible levy of tithe[467]; he is recognised in the law of wihtrǽd as an intermediary between a dependent of the bishop and the public courts of justice[468]; the thane’s or nobleman’s reeve was allowed on various occasions to act as his attorney: the great landowner was admonished to appoint reeves over his dependents, to preserve the peace and represent them before the law; and lastly so necessary a part of a
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nobleman’s establishment is the geréfa considered to be, that ini enacts[469], “whithersoever a noble journeys, thither may his reeve accompany him.” of course in many cases these geréfan would be merely stewards[470], but in nearly all we must consider them to have been judges in various courts of greater or less importance, public or private as it might chance to be. this one original character distinguishes all alike; whether it be the scírgeréfa of a county-court, the burhgeréfa of a corporation, the swángeréfa of a woodland moot, the mótgeréfa[471] of any court in which plea could be holden, or the túngeréfa of a vill or dependent settlement, the ancient steward of a manorial court.
358. cod. dipl. no. 235. the chronicle even calls cæsar’s tribune, labienus, geréfa.
359. the laws of eádweard the confessor show at how early a period the word was unintelligible. “greve autem nomen est potestatis; apud nos autem nichil melius videtur esse quam praefectura. est enim multiplex nomen; greve enim dicitur de scira, de wæpentagiis, de hundredo, de burgis, de villis: et videtur nobis compositum esse e grið anglice, quod est pax latine, et ve latine, videlicet quod debet facere grið, i. e. pacem, ex illis qui inferunt in terram ve, i. e. miseriam vel dolorem.... frisones et flandrenses comites suos meregrave vocant, quasi majores vel bonos pacificos; et sicut modo vocantur greves, qui habent praefecturas super alios, ita tunc temporis vocabantur eldereman, non propter senectutem, sed propter sapientiam.” cap. xxxii.
360. page 753. gloss. in voc. grafio.
361. grimm seems to think the word was originally frankish, and only borrowed by the alamanni, saxons, and scandinavians. rechtsalt. p. 753. i am disposed to claim it for the frisians and saxons as well as the franks.
362. rechtsalt. p. 753.
363. æðelst. v. 8. § 2, 3, 4.
364. “eliguntur in iisdem conciliis et principes, qui iura per pagos vicosque reddunt.” tac. germ. xii. some tribes may have called these principes by one name, some by another: ealdorman, ǽsaga, lahmon, are all legitimate appellations for a geréfa.
365. leg. eádw. i. § 1. thorpe, i. 158. leg. eádw. i. § 2. thorpe, i. 160. leg. eádw. i. §. 11. thorpe, i. 164. see also inst. polity, § xi. thorpe, ii. 318.
366. the instances cited are northumbrian, and it is remarkable that the chapter on wergylds, § 4, reckons the heáhgeréfa as a separate rank, having a high wergyld, but inferior to that of the ealdorman. i am much inclined to think that these were sheriffs.
367. leg. ini, § 8. æðelst. v. c. 8. § 2, 3, 4. æðelwine scírman. cod. dipl. no. 761, but æðelwine scírgeréfa. ibid. no. 732. wulfsige preóst scírigman; and wulfsige se scírigman. ibid. no. 1288. ufegeát scíreman. ibid. no. 972. leófríc scíresman. ibid. no. 929.
368. leg. ini, § 36.
369. cod. dipl. no. 755.
370. ibid. no. 1288.
371. ibid. no. 729.
372. the law of æðelstán, i. § 12 (thorpe, i. 206) assumes the presence of the reeves in the folcmót as a matter of course; but this does not particularise the shire-reeves, though these are probably included in the general term. see also æðelst. iv. § 1. thorpe, i. 220.
373. leg. eádg. ii. 5. cnut, ii. 18. thorpe, i. 268, 386.
374. æðelst. i. § 26. so again æðelst. iii. § 7; iv. § 1. thorpe, i. 212, 219, 222.
375. æðelst. v. § 11. thorpe, i. 240.
376. “and the king enjoins the reeves in every place to protect the abbots in all their worldly needs, as best ye may.” æðelred, ix. § 32. thorpe, i. 346.
377. æðelst. i. introd. thorpe, i. 194, 196.
378. eádg. i. § 3. æðelr. ix. § 8. cnut, i. § 8. thorpe, i. 262, 342, 366.
379. æðelst. i. § 10. thorpe, i. 204.
380. eádm. iii. § 5. thorpe i. 253. this law uses the word ordalii, which i believe to be an error for hordere, as in æðelstán’s law, and have rendered it accordingly.
381. leg. æðelr. i § 4. thorpe, i. 282.
382. cnut, ii. § 8. thorpe, i. 380.
383. æðelst. v. § 10. thorpe, i. 238.
384. cod. dipl. no. 1323. this writ is directed in the usual form, to the archbishop, the bishop of rochester, the abbot of st. augustine’s, the sheriff and the thanes of kent.
385. cnut. ii. § 70. thorpe, i. 412. feorm is the king’s farm or support: and feormfultum a benevolence in aid of the same. it had become compulsory in some cases, and this is what cnut forbids.
386. cod. dipl. no. 328.
387. ibid. no. 1258.
388. in the council of baccanceld, wihtred is made to say:—“it is the duty of kings to appoint eorls and ealdormen, scírgeréfan and doomsmen.” chron. sax. an. 694. “illius autem est comites, duces, optimates, principes, praefectos, iudices saeculares statuere.” cod. dipl. no. 996. the charter is an obvious forgery, but it shows the tendency of opinion in the anglosaxon times.
389. in some of the writs addressed to the shires, the place properly filled by the scírgeréfa is given to noblemen of the king’s household, as eádnóð steallere in hampshire. cod. dipl. no. 845. esgár steallere in hertfordshire, kent and middlesex. nos. 827, 843, 864. rodbeard steallere in essex. no. 859. i believe these persons to have been really the sheriffs, but to have been named by their familiar, and in their own view, higher designations, as officers of the court.
390. conc. greatanl. æðelst. 1. § 26.
391. tofig pruda, whom we recognize as scírgeréfa in somersetshire, is elsewhere described as “vir praepotens.” see flor. wig. an. 1042.
392. cod. dipl. no. 948.
393. ibid. no. 840.
394. flor. wig. an. 1008.
395. cod. dipl. no. 871.
396. ibid. nos. 788, 869, 870.
397. ibid. no. 859.
398. ibid. no. 1337.
399. ibid. no. 845.
400. chron. sax. 1056.
401. cod. dipl. no. 755.
402. ibid. no. 833.
403. ibid. no. 802.
404. ibid. no. 945.
405. ibid. no. 864.
406. ibid. no. 903.
407. ibid. no. 906.
408. ibid. nos. 1323, 1325.
409. ibid. nos. 731, 732.
410. ibid. no. 827.
411. ibid. no. 929.
412. ibid. nos. 847, 854.
413. cod. dipl. no. 1288. this is contrary to the provision of archbishop ecgberht’s poenitential, iii. § 8: he says that a priest or deacon ought not to be a geréfa, or a wícnere, or to have any concern with secular business. “nis nánum mæsse-preóste álýfed ne diacone, æt hí geréfan beón né wícneras, né ymbe náne worldbysgunga ábysgode beón, búton mid ðǽre ðe hig tó getitolode beóð.” thorpe, ii. 198. perhaps however ecgberht’s rule was construed to mean private, not public, geréfan, when in process of time it might become useful to have the assistance of priests learned in the law, as judges; especially as in the tenth century the importance of missionary labours was less strongly felt than in the eighth.
414. cod. dipl. no. 1258.
415. ibid. no. 1319.
416. ibid. no. 858.
417. ibid. no. 855.
418. ibid. no. 843.
419. ibid. no. 785.
420. ibid. nos. 853, 875, 880, 881, 883, 908, 911.
421. ibid. nos. 806, 808.
422. ibid. nos. 863, 904.
423. ibid. nos. 834, 835, 836, 838.
424. ibid. no. 821.
425. ibid. nos. 837, 839, 917, 926, 976.
426. ibid. nos. 832, 842.
427. ibid. nos. 874, 905.
428. ibid. no. 493.
429. ibid. no. 328.
430. ibid. nos. 757, 898, 923.
431. “si iudex vel sacerdos reperti fuerint nequiter iudicasse,” etc. leg. visigoth, ii. c. l. § 33.
432. “gif mon on folces gemóte cyninges geréfan ge-yppe eofot,” etc. § 22. “and gebrengen beforan cyninges geréfan on folcgemóte ... gecýðe in gemótes gewitnesse cyninges geréfan.” § 34. see also æðelred, iii. § 13. cnut, ii. § 8, 33. thorpe, i. 76, 82, 380, 396. in cod. dipl. no. 789, appears a king’s reeve wulfsige: but is not this the same wulfsige as we find sheriff of kent at the same period?
433. hen. hunt. lib. iv.
434. æðelw. lib. iii. “exactor regis, iam morans in oppido, quod dorceastre nuncupatur.” gaimar calls him a “un senescal al rei:” l. 2069.
435. hen. hunt. lib. v.
437. æðelr. iii. § 1, and iii. § 3. thorpe, i. 292, 294.
438. cod. dipl. no. 950.
439. ibid. no. 1289.
440. ibid. no. 981.
441. chron. sax. an. 906.
442. leg. eádg. ii. § 5.
443. æðelst. i. § 1. thorpe, i. 194.
444. see note 439
445. cod. dipl. vol. iv. passim. there is not the slightest reason to suppose that there ever was a special ealdorman of london, as palgrave imagines. the city was governed by portreeves, usually two at once, until long after the conquest, when it obtained mayors, like many other towns.
446. cod. dipl. nos. 857, 861.
447. cod. dipl. no. 856.
448. ibid. no. 872.
449. ibid. nos. 857, 861.
450. ibid. no. 872.
451. ibid. no. 929.
452. ibid. no. 799.
453. ibid. no. 789.
454. ibid. no. 981.
455. cod. dipl. no. 933. this evidence that the officer in bath was a portreeve and not a burhreeve may suggest the possibility of those persons whom i have cited under the former head, belonging rather to the present one. the latin praepositus civitatis will denote either one or the other office, and indeed it is difficult to prove any difference between them by direct testimony.
456. leg. eádw. § 1. thorpe, i. 158. eádm. iii. § 5. thorpe, i. 253. æðelst. i. § 12. thorpe, i. 206.
457. chron. sax. an. 897.
458. § 16. thorpe, i. 34.
459. æðelr. iv. § 3.
460. ælfr. § 1. thorpe, i. 61.
461. eádg. supp. § 13. thorpe, i. 276.
462. æðelst. i. § 1. thorpe, i. 196.
463. æðelr. viii. § 2. thorpe, i. 338.
464. cod. dipl. no. 191.
465. cod. dipl. no. 219.
466. thorpe, i. 426.
467. æðelr. i. § 1. cnut, ii. § 30.
468. wihtr. § 22. thorpe, i. 43.
469. ini. §63.
470. cod. dipl. no. 931.
471. “swá ðæt nán scírgeréfa oððe mótgeréfa hæbbe ǽnige sócne oððe mót, búton ðæs abbudes ágen hǽse ⁊ unne.” cod. dipl. no. 841. the law of eadweard which commands the reeve to hold his court once a month, and which can only apply to the hundred, makes it probable that as the scírgeréfa was in some places called scírman, so the hundred-man may in some places have been called hundred-geréfa: i have already alluded to the geréfa in the wapentake; and the law of eadweard the confessor (§ 31) shows that in the counties where there were triðingas or ridings, there existed also a triðing-geréfa.
