The Sheriff: A 1,000 Year Tradition

Dedication: To the Fearless Sheriffs and Law Enforcement Officer Alone on The Watch

Prologue: Sometimes casual reading offers up a few wonderful “ah-hah” moments. One of my self- imposed punishments is reading through the tome that is the Cambridge Medieval History. In one of its seemingly endless volumes, I came upon something of a revelation. In following up afterwards, I realized that it was no great discovery but plainly available to anyone searching for it. Nonetheless, I thought I would share it, especially with my sheriff friends, and also add a little something not so obvious - yet, to me, it strikes to the heart of the character and calling of the modern sheriff and all law enforcement.  

The Sheriff: One of the mainstays of public safety and law enforcement in the United States is the Office of the Sheriff. Today’s sheriff stands on the shoulders of a proud tradition reaching back over one thousand years to the Norman Conquest of the Eleventh Century. The word (and the tradition of the sheriff itself) owes its origin to England’s Anglo and Saxon invaders and its feudal system. In fact, it might be argued that the modern concept of law enforcement owes its existence to the first sheriffs emerging after nearly 500 years following the demise of the Roman Empire.

The word “sheriff” is derived from “scir-reeve”. The word “shire” is a modernized version of the Old English word “scir”, which itself originates from Old German, meaning an official or district. The Shire (or “scir”) predates the Norman Conquest and was part of the pre-Norman land organization system.  It was based on groupings of families and their farming plots which were then ultimately combined into areas of one hundred families. These districts were known as “hundreds” and hundreds were then joined into a shire. With the Norman invasion, the landholding system changed into the better-known feudal system and the shire became associated with large landholdings known as manors. Manors were under the control of the King or a lord who received a grant from the King. The “shire” as a county-like territorial boundary made its way through time and remained with the English until the 18th century. Our county concept owes its heritage to the shire. In fact, the shire lives on in U.S. place names, especially in regions that were part of the original colonies.  A classic example is Berkshire County in Massachusetts. In fact, the Virginia Colony was comprised of eight shires when first settled in 1634, and after a few years were subsequently retitled as counties.  So, the “sher” in sheriff is a derivation from the word shire or more strictly “scir”.

Now, for the rest of the puzzle - “reeve”. The Reeve was the appointed chief magistrate of an administrative area – a township, manor, or shire. There were different types of reeves, including port-reeves, high-reeves, and shire-reeves (if you pronounce shire-reeve quickly you can hear the similarity to the modern word sheriff). The origin of the word “reeve” seems uncertain, though. Many ascribe its root meaning to the word “number”.  The Middle English form of reeve is “reve”, which is transformed from the Old English form of “gerefa”. The “ge” is a prefix; the root word is “refa”.  A quick review of etymological resources indicates that the word is derived from or akin to the Old High German word “ruova” which means “number”. The Old English counterpart for number is “rof”. Thus, the seemingly common view is that “reeve” originates from the word “number”.

This struck me as an oddity. Nonetheless, I happened to recall from my Cambridge Medieval History readings that one author referred to a Reeve as relating to an alarm or something to that effect. Digging a bit deeper, I located a resource by Francis Palgrave titled “The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth: Anglo-Saxon period, Volume 1” (Cambridge Press, 1832). This resource discusses the Anglo-Saxon origins of English law and finds that within the Saxon judicial construct, townships, being mostly clan based, were self-policed under the oversight of community of leaders. Id. at pp. 64-66. If a crime was reported, citizens were required to raise the “hue and call” alerting others to look for the offender. Id. at p. 65. Moreover, in an interesting footnote, the more ancient origin of the word “gerefa” points to meaning a companion in the context of one who accompanies a count.  It further expounds that the anagram “gefera” means the same as “gerefa”, and the Gefera would accompany the count at home and away when in war. Id. at p. 65, note  a. It would make sense then that the Gefera was, for lack of a better phrase, the “right hand man” of the ancient noble and most likely responsible for being on alert to protect the noble’s person as well as being his personal representative carrying out orders.

Armed with these clues, I researched a bit more and came across an Old High German Dictionary Primer (Wright, Joseph, An Old High German Primer, With Grammar, Notes and Glossary, Clarendon Press, 1888, p.161, Google Books Online) and discovered something quite by happenstance. I truly must admit happenstance because I don’t understand German, let alone Old High German. Furthermore, I make no claim to be a medieval historian, just a curious lawyer meandering along some long-forgotten paths. 

 Interestingly, in the Old High German Primer the word “rouva” followed the word “roufan”. To my wonderment, the definition is “call out, cry out.” So, it might just be that the “riff” in sheriff which is “reeve”, and really “refa”, and thought to be from “rouva” is really our “roufan”. Its seems quite fitting. The roufan - the first on watch, the first to raise warning and the first to respond for over a thousand years - taking charge to protect fellow citizens of the shire, our county.

Thank you for over a thousand years plus of noble service.