- Sheriffs of the City of London
There are two
Sheriff s of theCity of London . The sheriffs are elected annually by the Liverymen of the Livery Companies, and it is a requirement for aLord Mayor of the City of London to previously have served as a Sheriff. Sheriffs have only nominal duties now, but previously had large judicial responsibilities. They attend the Justices at the Central Criminal CourtOld Bailey since its original role as the Court for the City and Middlesex. The Sheriifs actually are resident for their year of office in the court house complex, so that one of them is always attendent on the judges. The Sheriffs have always been jointly those for the City of London and Middlesex. In Court No1 the principal chairs on the 'bench' are reserved for them and the Lord Mayor, the City's Sword hangs behind the 'bench'.They are elected at the Midsummer Common Hall by the
Liverymen by acclamation unless a ballot is demanded from the floor which takes place within 14 days. The returning officers at the Common Hall are theRecorder of London (senior Judge of the 'Old Bailey') and the serving Sheriffs. The current (as of June 2007) Sheriffs are Alderman Ian Luder and Alderman Michael Bear. The Sheriffs Elect are Alderman Roger Gifford and George Gillon CC. [http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/corp_history/sheriffs.htm Sheriffs & Aldermen] ]The sheriffs only cover the square mile of the City of London. There is now a
High Sheriff ofGreater London who covers London outside of the City, which today incorporates parts of several old counties, notablyMiddlesex .History of the office
The title of
sheriff , orshire reeve, evolved during the Anglo-Saxon period of English history; the reeve was the representative of theking in a city, town or shire, responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing the law. [Bruce and Calder, p.10] By the time of theNorman Conquest in1066 , theCity of London had sheriffs, usually two at a time; the sheriffs were the most important city officials and collected London's annual taxes on behalf of the royalexchequer ; they also had judicial duties in the City's law courts.Inwood, p.55-6] Until1130 , the sheriffs were directly appointed by the king; however, London gained a degree of self-government during the12th century , including the right to choose its own sheriff, a right which was affirmed in an1141 charter by King Stephen.In
1189 , [http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/corp_history/sheriffs.htm Sheriffs and Aldermen] , Corporation of London website] an annually electedmayor was introduced aschief magistrate for the City of London (along the lines of some European cities of the time such asRouen and Liege); this change was reaffirmed by a charter granted by King John in1215 . As such, the sheriffs were relegated to a less senior role in the running of the city, and became subordinate to the mayor. [Inwood, p.59] However, the mayor (laterLord Mayor of the City of London ) generally served as sheriff before becoming mayor, and in1385 theCommon Council of London stipulated that every future Lord Mayor should "have previously been Sheriff so that he may be tried as to his governance and bounty before he attains to the Estate of Mayoralty"; this tradition continues to this day.Footnotes
References
*Bruce, Alastair and Calder, Julian, "Keepers of the Kingdom" (Cassell, 2002), ISBN 0-304-36201-8
*Inwood, Stephen, A History of London (Macmillan, 1998), ISBN 0-333-67154-6
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