[386]. Cod. Dipl. No. 328.
[387]. Ibid. No. 1258.
[388]. In the Council of Baccanceld, Wihtred is made to say:—“It is the duty of kings to appoint eorls and ealdormen, scírgeréfan and doomsmen.” Chron. Sax. an. 694. “Illius autem est comites, duces, optimates, principes, praefectos, iudices saeculares statuere.” Cod. Dipl. No. 996. The charter is an obvious forgery, but it shows the tendency of opinion in the Anglosaxon times.
[389]. In some of the writs addressed to the shires, the place properly filled by the scírgeréfa is given to noblemen of the king’s household, as Eádnóð steallere in Hampshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 845. Esgár steallere in Hertfordshire, Kent and Middlesex. Nos. 827, 843, 864. Rodbeard steallere in Essex. No. 859. I believe these persons to have been really the sheriffs, but to have been named by their familiar, and in their own view, higher designations, as officers of the court.
[390]. Conc. Greatanl. Æðelst. 1. § 26.
[391]. Tofig Pruda, whom we recognize as scírgeréfa in Somersetshire, is elsewhere described as “vir praepotens.” See Flor. Wig. an. 1042.
[392]. Cod. Dipl. No. 948.
[393]. Ibid. No. 840.
[394]. Flor. Wig. an. 1008.
[395]. Cod. Dipl. No. 871.