17th Century Sheriff Officer

[scooter]

Hello All,

Would anyone know what sort of work a Sheriff Officer might occupy himself with in late seventeenth century Scotland ? (in this case Renfrewshire) Would he have been a person of some social standing in his own capacity, or just an operative for the local Sheriff?

Any thoughts are much appreciated!

Cheers,

Scott

[Liz Turner]

Hi Scott

Here's a link to a web site with some information:-

http://scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm

And this is one which gives an idea of what Sheriff-officers might do today - I used to work for a firm of solicitors and we often used Sherrif-officers and messengers-at-arms.

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Sheriff-officer

Encyclopedia > Sheriff officer
A sheriff officer is an officer of the Scottish Sheriff Court, responsible for serving documents and enforcing court orders. The jurisdiction of a sheriff officer is limited to the area of their commission (the relevant sheriffdom or Sheriff Court district), unlike messengers-at-arms (the equivalent officers of the Court of Session, who have jurisdiction throughout Scotland). Both messengers-at-arms and sheriff officers are generally employed by private businesses and charge fees that are set by statute. A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties before the court and requires or authorises the carrying out of certain steps by one or more parties to a case. ... The Court of Session is the supreme civil court in Scotland. ...

Sheriff officers have been under the control of the local Sheriff for centuries. The office of sheriff officer is thought to be one of the oldest in the Scottish legal system, and may derive from the pre-feudal office of mair (an official who attended a sheriff for arrestment or executions).

Hope this gives you an idea.

Liz

[scooter]

Cheers for that Liz, very interesting reading. I've been looking through the NAS catalogue to see if records of such persons still exist. No luck yet though!

Kind regards,

Scott

[Liz Turner]

Scott

This is just a thought, but many of the Sheriff Offers and/Messengers-at-Arms that exist today, are carrying on from firms which have been in existance, certainly in Scotland, for sometimes over 100 years. I did a "google" search using:- Scotland + "Sheriff Officer " + history and got around 6,000+ hits (many to companies working across Scotland today). If you followed some of the links you might find out where any old records are kept.

Some of the links led to sites which gave some stories of actual instances where there were evictions etc carried out - very interesting to read.

As an aside, I had a look at the Faculty of Advocates site - http://www.advocates.org.uk/library/usinglibrary.html and they say that "Non members can access the majority of library stock through the National Library of Scotland. While Members of Faculty do have priority on the use of Advocates Library items, every effort is made to ensure that items reach the National Library of Scotland as quickly as possible." So the NLS may also be a possibility for further information.

Liz