BAILIFF - The word bailiff is of Norman origin, and was applied in England, at an early period, (after the example, it is said, of the French,) to the chief magistrates of counties, or shires, such as the alderman, the reeve, or sheriff, and also of inferior jurisdictions, such as hundreds and wapentakes. Spelman, voc. Balivus; 1 Bl. Com.,344. See Bailli, Ballivus. The Latin ballivus occurs, indeed, in the laws of Edward the Confessor, but Spelman thinks it was introduced by a later hand. Balliva (bailiwick) was the word formed from ballivus, to denote the extent of territory comprised within a bailiff's jurisdiction; and bailiwick is still retained in writs and other proceedings, as the name of a sheriff's county. 1 Bl. Com., 344. See Balliva. The office of bailiff was at first strictly, though not exclusively, a judicial one. In France, the word had the sense of what Spelman calls justitia tutelaris. Ballivus occurs frequently in the Regiam Majestatem, in the sense of a judge. Spelman. In its sense of a deputy, it was formerly applied, in England, to those officers who, by virtue of a deputation, either from the sheriff or the lords of private jurisdictions, exercised within the hundred, or whatever might be the limits of their bailiwick, certain judicial and ministerial functions. With the disuse of private and local jurisdictions, the meaning of the term became commonly restricted to such persons as were deputed by the sheriff to assist him in the merely ministerial portion of his duty; such as the summoning of juries, and the execution of writs. Brande.. The word bailiff is also applied in England to the chief magistrates of certain towns and jurisdictions, to the keepers of castles, forests and other places, and to the stewards or agents of lords of manors. Burrill's Law Dict.
"BAILIFF, (from the Lat. ballivus; Fr. baillif, i. e., Praefectus provinciae,) signifies an officer appointed for the administration of justice within a certain district. The office, as well as the name, appears to have been derived from the French," &c;. Brewster's Encyclopedia.
Millar says, "The French monarchs, about this period, were not content with the power of receiving appeals from the several courts of their barons. An expedient was devised of sending royal bailiffs into different parts of the kingdom, with a commission to take cognizance of all those causes in which the sovereign was interested, and in reality for the purpose of abridging and limiting the subordinate jurisdiction of the neighboring feudal superiors. By an edict of Phillip Augustus, in the year 1190, those bailiffs were appointed in all the principal towns of the kingdom." Millar's Hist. View of the Eng. Gov., vol. ii., ch. 8, p. 126.
"BAILIFF- office. Magistrates who formerly administered justice in the parliaments or courts of France, answering to the English sheriffs, as mentioned by Bracton." Bouvier's Law Dict.
"There be several officers called bailiffs, whose offices and employments seem quite different from each other… The chief magistrate, in divers ancient corporations, are called bailiffs, as in Ipswich, Yarmouth, Colchester, &c;. There are, likewise, officers of the forest, who are termed bailiffs." 1 Bacon's Abridgment, 498 9.
" BAILIFF signifies a keeper or superintendent, and is directly derived from the French word bailli, which appears to come from the word balivus, and that from bagalus, a Latin word signifying generally a governor, tutor, or superintendent… The French word bailli is thus explained by Richelet, (Dictionaire, &e;.:) Bailli. He who in a province has the superintendence of justice, who is the ordinary judge of the nobles, who is their head for the ban and arriere ban, [9] and who maintains the right and property of others against those who attack them… All the various officers who are called by this name, though differing as to the nature of their employments, seem to have some kind of superintendence intrusted to them by their superior." Political Dictionary.
" BAILIFF, balivus. From the French word bayliff, that is, praefectus provinciae, and as the name, so the office itself was answerable to that of France, where there were eight parliaments, which were high courts from whence there lay no appeal, and within the precincts of the several parts of that kingdom which belonged to each parliament, there were several provinces to which justice was administered by certain officers called bailiffs; and in England we have several counties in which justice hath been, and still is, in small suits, administered to the inhabitants by the officer whom we now call sheriff, or viscount; (one of which names descends from the Saxons, the other from the Normans.) And, though the sheriff is not called bailiff, yet it was probable that was one of his names also, because the county is often called balliva; as in the return of a writ, where the person is not arrested, the sheriff saith, infra-nominatus, A. B. non est inventus in balliva mea, &c;.; (the within named A. B. is not found in my bailiwick, &c;.) And in the statute of Magna Carta, ch. 28, and 14 Ed. 8, ch. 9, the word bailiff seems to comprise as well sheriffs, as bailiffs of hundreds.
BAILIES, in Scotland, are magistrates of burghs, possessed of certain jurisdictions, having the same power within their territory as sheriffs in the county.
As England is divided into counties, so every county is divided into hundreds; within which, in ancient times, the people had justice administered to them by the several officers of every hundred, which were the bailiffs. And it appears by Bracton, (lib. 3, tract. 2, ch. 34,) that bailiffs of hundreds might anciently hold plea of appeal and approvers; but since that time the hundred courts, except certain franchises, are swallowed in the county courts; and now the bailiff's name and office is grown into contempt, they being generally officers to serve writs, &c;., within their liberties; though, in other respects, the name is still in good esteem, for the chief magistrates in divers towns are called bailiffs; and sometimes the persons to whom the king's castles are committed are termed bailiffs, as the bailiffof Dover Castle, &c;.,
"Of the ordinary bailiffs there are several sorts, viz., bailiffsof liberties; sheriffs' bailiffs; bailiffs of lords of manors; bailiffs of husbandry, &c;.