The office of High Sheriff is the oldest, still in existence, royal appointment, being able to trace the roots of the role to the 7th Century when a ruler called Ine of a small kingdom based around Winchester, provided in his laws for a “scir man” to resolve disputes. The better-known King Alfred (yes, he of the burning of the cakes story) thought so well of these laws that he had a copy of them bound into his personal copy of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.
High Sheriffs were a vital third party to the shire courts of the Saxons, and in 928 Aethelstan, who was one of the first kings of All England, required his Reeves/Sheriffs to provide at their expense for one destitute Englishman compromising of a quantity of meat, a shank of bacon and an annual suit of clothing and to make free one man who had been reduced to penal slavery.
The fine if the Reeve/Sheriff did not do this was 30 shillings – interestingly the same amount that High Sheriffs of Shropshire must pay to the Shrewsbury Drapers Company annually following a decree from Henry II in the mid-12th Century. He decreed that each year the High Sheriff of Shropshire was to give to the Hospital of St. Giles a fine of 30 shillings plus a handful of 2 hands of every sack of corn and a handful of one hand of every sack of wheat from all sacks sold at Shrewsbury market! Thank goodness the requirement was not indexed linked as that would be over £4000 in today’s prices!
