Chancery: Sheriffs' Rolls from the Petty Bag Office

C 227

1531-1678

Lists of names of candidates for appointment as sheriff in England and Wales, with those of the sheriffs for the two preceding years.

The series also includes pricked lists of those appointed, in most cases with the royal sign manual appended. There are too a few enrolments of the appointments of sheriffs and occasionally of escheators.

The rolls often carry manuscript additions or alterations in different hands, and miscellaneous notes and memoranda, such as when the monarch rejected all three nominees for sheriff and imposed his own candidate.

Sheriffs' rolls may also be found in C 172

For later Sheriffs' rolls see PC 3

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

56 roll(s)

When a sovereign selected the sheriff for each county he did so by choosing from a list of three names prepared by the Privy Council and judges, and copied out by a clerk of the Exchequer. Having made his choice of sheriff, the king then added his sign manual to either the beginning or end of the roll, and this acted as a warrant for sealing the sheriffs' patents with the great seal. These are the pricked lists.

In the case of Welsh sheriffs the nominations were drawn up by the lord president and justices of the Council of Wales. The pricked rolls for Wales were copied onto the English rolls until 1568; thereafter the originals were presented to the sovereign for pricking and these are accordingly separate.

Another set of rolls was then drawn up in Chancery. These bear two lists of names in parallel columns. The right-hand column is a copy of the English and Welsh pricked rolls for a particular year; the left-hand column is a list of the sheriffs for that year and the preceding two years.

The reason for this practice is probably the statutory prohibition on anyone serving as sheriff within three years of holding the office. By having such lists the Chancery clerks would avoid the need to search enrolments of appointment on the fine rolls for three separate years should a replacement be needed for a candidate who either died or was found to be ineligible after the general pricking.