High Sheriff of Carrickfergus

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The Sheriff (later High Sheriff) of Carrickfergus was the high sheriff (British monarch's judicial representative) in the county of the town of Carrickfergus until the county was abolished under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. [1]

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In medieval times, the Earldom of Ulster was split into multiple counties, each with a seneschal representing the earl and a sheriff representing the King of England in his role as Lord of Ireland. Adjoining counties were centred on the towns of Antrim and Carrickfergus and shared a sheriff; the earliest surviving record found by Samuel McSkimin in 1812 dated from 1325. [2] About 1305, Elys de Berkeweye was treasurer and chancellor of Ulster and sheriff of Carrickfergus. [3]

The town of Carrickfergus formerly had two bailiffs; in 1523 these were Thos. Unchile and Henry Fythe. [4] Under the 1569 royal charter which established Carrickfergus as a county corporate, the town had two sheriffs, elected annually at the same municipal corporation meeting which elected the mayor; the new mayor's first official act was to swear in the new sheriffs. [5] Until 1743, the mayor selected one sheriff and the full council the other, the latter taking precedence; thereafter, the council elected both sheriffs. [5] [6] The same sheriff often served multiple consecutive years. [7]

The sheriff's annual salary from the corporation was £6 13s 4d in 1601, increased to £10 in 1732 and £20 in 1797. [5] In 1624, other allowances were replaced with the right to collect certain fines. [5] Other fees were supposed to be forwarded to the Court of Exchequer in Dublin, but by 1800 this duty had been neglected, and several sheriffs were arrested and imprisoned for failing to provide proper accounts. [8] In 1820, the sheriff's corporation salary was increased to £40 to cover the expense of making accounts and delivering them to the Exchequer. [9] [10] At that time he also received £8 on presentment from the grand jury in lieu of fees from the prisoners in the town gaol; [10] and his estimated income from fees for serving writs was £25 to £30. [11] His only other expense was three guineas to the town criers for each of the two annual assizes. [12]

The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 abolished the town's corporation (effective 1842) but not its county grand jury and assizes. [1] [13] Thereafter a single sheriff was appointed annually in the same manner as counties-at-large: [14] the justice at the summer assizes made a shortlist of three, from which the King's Bench justices collectively chose one name for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to appoint by letters patent under the Great Seal of Ireland. Carrickfergus was the smallest county in Ireland in area and population, and the number of landed gentry with sufficient property to be eligible to serve as sheriff was in consequence small; on several occasions the person nominated committed the crime of refusal to serve in a public office. [15] [16] [17]

County Antrim surrounds Carrickfergus and the corporate county of Carrickfergus was merged into the administrative county of Antrim in 1899, abolishing the office of high sheriff of Carrickfergus. [1]

List of sheriffs and high sheriffs

Source: [18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 241, footnote
  2. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 242
  3. Connolly, Philomena (1987). "Irish Material in the Class of Ancient Petitions (SC8) in the Public Record Office, London". Analecta Hibernica (34): 32. ISSN   0791-6167. JSTOR   25512009.
  4. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 409
  5. 1 2 3 4 McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 269
  6. Kirk 1826 q. 3
  7. Kirk 1826 q. 10
  8. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 pp. 269–271
  9. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 271
  10. 1 2 Kirk 1826 q. 12
  11. Kirk 1826 q. 14
  12. Kirk 1826 q. 16
  13. Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, s. 13 and Schedule (B)
  14. Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, s. 150
  15. Hansard HC Deb 25 February 1897 vol 46 c1137
  16. Hansard 17 December 1902 Irish County And Borough Sheriffs
  17. 1 2 McSkimin and M'Crum 1909, pp. 507–509
  18. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909, pp. 409–430; pp. 501–502
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Burke, Bernard (1886). "Newton of Killymeal". A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. II (7th ed.). London: Harrison. p. 1346. MARMADUKE NEWTON, Esq., Sheriff of Carrickfergus 1624 and 1632, whose son, RICHARD NEWTON, Esq. ... had four sons, the eldest, Marmaduke, High Sheriff of Carrickfergus 1687
  20. Dod's Parliamentary Companion. 1879. p. 201.
  21. McGregor, A. G. Murray (August 1894). "Thomas Greer, J.P., F.R.G.S." The Celtic Monthly: A Magazine for Highlanders. II (11): 221.
  22. McSkimin and M'Crum 1909 p. 505

Sources