Sheriffs Act 1887

A sheriff shall be annually appointed for every county.

Save as provided by this Act, a sheriff shall not hold office for more than one year, and a grant after the passing of this Act of the office for more than one year shall be void.

The office of sheriff or of any officer of a sheriff shall not become void by reason of the demise F1. . . of the Duchy of Cornwall, but the person holding the office shall, unless sooner removed or superseded, continue in office for the remainder of his term, in like manner as if such demise had not taken place.

In this Act “county”, in relation to Wales, means a preserved county (as defined by section 64 of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994).

On the twelfth day of November in every year (or if that day fall on a Sunday then on the ensuing Monday) persons fit to serve as sheriffs shall be nominated for every county at the Royal Courts of Justice in the manner that has been heretofore used and observed, and shall be so nominated by the following great officers, namely, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord High Treasurer, or if there is no Lord High Treasurer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord President and others of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, and the Lord Chief Justice of England, or any two or more of such great officers, taking to them the judges of Her Majesty’s High Court, or any two or more of them.

Whenever Her Majesty has duly pricked a person to be sheriff of a county, the same shall be forthwith notified in the London Gazette; and a warrant in the form in the First Schedule to this Act shall be forthwith made out and signed by the Clerk of the Privy Council and transmitted by him to the person so pricked; and the appointment of sheriff so made shall be of the same effect as if made by patent under the Great Seal; and every sheriff so appointed upon making the declaration of office in this Act mentioned shall by virtue of this Act only and without payment of any fee have and exercise all powers, privileges, and authorities usually exercised and enjoyed by sheriffs of counties in England.

A duplicate of the said warrant shall within ten days after the date thereof be transmitted by the Clerk of the Privy Council to the clerk of the peace of the county for which such person is appointed sheriff and shall be enrolled and kept by the said clerk of the peace without fee.

Any question as to which is the appropriate county or county borough council in relation to a particular warrant shall be determined by the Secretary of State.

Nothing in this section shall apply to the counties of Cornwall, Lancaster . . . F23

Every sheriff shall, before he enters on the execution of his office, make and subscribe a declaration in the form in the Second Schedule to this Act or to the like effect before one of the judges of Her Majesty’s High Court or before a justice of the peace for the county of which he is sheriff.

Every sheriff shall continue to be and act as sheriff until his successor has made the said declaration and entered upon office.

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If a sheriff finds any resistance in the execution of a writ he shall take with him the power of the county, and shall go in proper person to do execution, and may arrest the resisters and commit them to prison, and every such resister shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

A sheriff at the request of a person delivering a writ to him for execution shall give a receipt for that writ stating the day of its delivery.

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Where a sheriff or his officer or other person employed in collecting by process from any court any debt due to the Crown receives from any person a sum due to the Crown he shall give a receipt to such person for that sum; and the sheriff, at the next account after a sum due to the Crown has been paid to him or his officer, shall procure the effectual discharge of the debtor paying the same.

An officer of a sheriff receiving any such sum shall account for it to the sheriff, and the sheriff shall give a receipt for such sum.

In case of any default under this section, the sheriff and his heirs, executors, and administrators, shall be liable to pay any damages suffered by a debtor in consequence of such default.

If a person in the custody of the sheriff or any of his officers or of any other person, either in execution or for non-performance of a judgment or order of the High Court, or for contempt of that court or otherwise in the course of a civil proceeding, escapes out of legal custody, such sheriff or other person shall be liable to pay the damages sustained by the person at whose suit such prisoner was taken into custody, and all costs of any action or other proceeding to recover the same, but not any further sum.

A sheriff shall not be liable for the escape of any prisoner when confined in any prison subject to the F24M1Prison Act 1952.

A sheriff shall be entitled in respect of all sums due to the Crown, and collected by him under process of any court, to an allowance upon his accounts of F257½p in the pound for every sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, and of F255p for every pound exceeding the first hundred pounds.

Any sheriff or officer of a sheriff concerned in the execution of process directed to the sheriff, other than process for the recovery of the aforesaid sums due to the Crown, may demand, take, and receive such fees and poundage as may from time to time be fixed by the Lord Chancellor, with the advice and consent of the judges of the Court of Appeal and High Court, or any three of them, and with the concurrence of the Treasury.

Any sheriff or officer of a sheriff, and any officer arresting or having in custody any person by virtue of any action, writ, or attachment, shall not demand or take any reward to do his office except such remuneration as is given to the sheriffs by the Crown, or is given to an officer of the sheriff by the sheriff, and such fees and poundage as are above-mentioned or are allowed by or in pursuance of any other Act, and, save as allowed by this Act, shall not demand or take directly or indirectly any reward for doing his office or duty or for abstaining therefrom, or in respect of the mode in which he does his office or duty.

Where a sheriff seizes any personal estate for any sum due to the Crown and dies or is superseded before he has sold the same and his successor sells the same, the poundage and fees due in respect of the seizure and sale shall be apportioned between the preceding and subsequent sheriffs in such manner and proportions as a judge of the High Court may on application determine, having regard to the expense and trouble that each sheriff had.

All accounts of sheriffs and their under-sheriffs which are transmitted to the F27Lord Chancellor under this Act shall be examined and audited by such persons and in such manner as the F27Lord Chancellor may from time to time by warrant direct; and the F27Lord Chancellor may by any warrant make such provisions in relation to the transmission, examination, verification, and audit of such accounts, and for ascertaining and determining the balances due from and the discharge of the persons accounting, as to the Treasury may seem proper.

Every such warrant shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within fourteen days after the making thereof if Parliament be sitting, and if Parliament be not sitting then within fourteen days after the next meeting of Parliament.

If under any such warrant it is necessary for a sheriff or under-sheriff to take any oath to any account or any matter relating thereto, such oath, except when the F27Lord Chancellor requires his personal examination before the person appointed by F27him to audit, may be sworn before any judge of Her Majesty’s High Court, or before any master of the Supreme Court, or before any commissioner for taking oaths in the Supreme Court, or before any justice of the peace.

If any officer, clerk, or other person concerned in the passing of sheriffs accounts by his wilful act or default hinders any sheriff in passing his accounts, or obtaining hisquietus,he shall make such satisfaction to the party aggrieved as may be ordered by Her Majesty’s High Court or any judge thereof on complaint made in such summary manner as the said court may order.

Every sheriff shall within one month after the notification of his appointment in the London Gazette by writing under his hand appoint some fit person to be his under-sheriff, and shall transmit a duplicate of such written appointment to the clerk of the peace for the county which shall be filed by him among the records of his office.

For filing such duplicate the clerk of the peace shall be entitled to demand and receive from the under-sheriff such fee as may be from time to time fixed in pursuance of the enactments relating to fees of clerks of the peace, and until any fee is so fixed a fee of F2825p.

Every under-sheriff shall before he enters on the execution of his office make a declaration in the form in the Second Schedule to this Act or to the like effect before one of the judges of Her Majesty’s High Court, or before a justice of the peace for the county for which such under-sheriff is appointed.

Where the sheriff of a county dies before the expiration of his year of office or before he is lawfully superseded, the under-sheriff by him appointed shall nevertheless continue in office and shall until another sheriff be appointed for the said county and has made the declaration of office, execute the office of sheriff, in the name of the deceased sheriff, and be answerable for the execution of the said office as the deceased sheriff would by law have been if living; and the security given to the sheriff so deceased by the said under-sheriff and his pledges shall remain and be a security to the Crown and to all persons whomsoever for such under-sheriff’s due execution of the offices of sheriff and under-sheriff.

When it becomes the duty of an under-sheriff to act as sheriff under the provisions of this section he may by writing under his hand appoint a deputy.

A person shall not directly or indirectly by himself or by any person in trust for him or for his use buy, sell, let, or take to ferm the office of under-sheriff, deputy-sheriff, bailiff, or any other office or place appertaining to the office of sheriff, nor contract for, promise, or grant for any valuable consideration whatever any such office or place, nor give, promise, or receive any valuable consideration whatever for any such office or place.

Any person who acts in contravention of this section, not being an under-sheriff, deputy-sheriff, bailiff, or officer of a sheriff, shall be liable to the same punishment as if he were an under-sheriff, deputy-sheriff, bailiff, or officer.

Provided that this section shall not prevent the sheriff or under-sheriff from demanding and taking the lawful fees and perquisites of the office of sheriff or of any place or employment belonging thereto, nor from taking security for duly answering for the same, and shall not prevent any officer of a sheriff from accounting to the sheriff for the fees and perquisites received by him in respect of his office, nor from giving security so to account, and shall not prevent a sheriff from giving nor an officer from receiving a salary or remuneration for the execution of his office.

Every sheriff shall at the expiration of his term of office make out and deliver to the incoming sheriff a correct list and account under his hand of all prisoners in his custody and of all rolls and writs in his hands not wholly executed by him, with all such particulars as may be necessary to explain to the incoming sheriff the several matters intended to be transferred to him, and shall thereupon turn over and transfer to the custody of the incoming sheriff all such prisoners rolls and writs, and all records, books, and matters appertaining to the office of sheriff.

The incoming sheriff shall thereupon sign and give to the outgoing sheriff a duplicate of such list and account, which shall be a good and sufficient discharge to him of and from all the prisoners therein mentioned and the execution of the writs and other matters therein contained; and thereupon the incoming sheriff shall stand charged with the said prisoners and with the execution and care of the said rolls, writs, and other matters contained in the said list and account.

A sheriff shall not be called upon to make a return of any writ after the expiration of six months from the date at which he ceases to hold office.

Any of the following courts, that is to say, Her Majesty’s High Court, . . . F33, or any judge of any of the said courts, also where the alleged offence has been committed in relation to any writ issued out of any other court of record than those above-mentioned, the court out of which such writ issued, may on complaint made of any such offence as aforesaid having been committed and on proof on oath given by the examination of witnesses or by affidavit or on interrogatories of the commission of the alleged offence, and after hearing anything which the alleged offender may urge in his defence (which evidence and hearing may be taken and had in a summary manner) punish the offender or cause proceedings to be taken for his punishment in like manner as a person guilty of contempt of the said court may be punished.

The court may order the costs of or occasioned by any such complaint to be paid by either party to the other and an order by the High Court in any such summary proceeding to pay any costs, damages, or penalty shall be of the same effect as a judgment of the High Court, and may be enforced accordingly.

Any of the said courts being a superior court of record may also proceed for and deal with such offence in like manner as for any contempt of such court.

If any person not being an under-sheriff, bailiff, or officer of a sheriff, assumes or pretends to act as such . . . F34, he shall be guilty of contempt of Her Majesty’s High Court, and be liable to be punished in manner provided by this section as if he were an under-sheriff guilty of a contempt of such court.

Any proceeding in pursuance of this section against a sheriff, under-sheriff or any other person to whom this section applies shall be taken within two years after the alleged offence was committed and not subsequently, and if the proceeding is in a summary manner shall be taken before the end of the sittings of the court held next after the offence was committed and not subsequently.

Nothing in this section shall render a person liable to be punished twice in respect of the same offence, but if any proceeding is taken against a person under this section for any offence the court or judge may postpone or stay such proceeding and direct any other available proceeding to be taken for punishing such offence.

Every declaration of office made under this Act by a sheriff of a county or his under-sheriff shall . . . F35be transmitted to the clerk of the peace for the county, and be by him filed among the records of his office.

For filing such declaration the clerk of the peace shall be entitled to demand and receive from such sheriff or under-sheriff such fee as may be from time to time fixed in pursuance of the enactments relating to fees of clerks of the peace, and until any fee is so fixed a fee of F3625p.

Nothing in this Act shall affect the privilege of the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the city of London to elect the . . . F38 sheriffs of London.

Unless otherwise directed by order of Her Majesty in Council, warrants signifying the approval by Her Majesty of the election of the . . . F38 sheriffs of London shall be prepared under the seal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the central office of the Supreme Court, which warrants may be delivered to the said sheriffs or their duly authorised agents without fee on the thirtieth day of September or between that day and the twelfth day of November in every year, and an entry of the grant of such warrants shall be made on the roll of the court, and unless such warrant be stayed by order of Her Majesty in Council on or before the said thirtieth day of September, the election of such . . . F38 sheriffs shall be deemed to be approved by Her Majesty.

All warrants and documents relating to the said . . . F38 sheriffs which heretofore have been filed and recorded in the central office of the Supreme Court shall continue to be so filed and recorded.

Save as aforesaid and save as regards the maintenance of men servants and the duration of office, this Act shall apply to the . . . F38 sheriffs of London in like manner as to any other sheriff.

This repeal shall not revive or restore any jurisdiction, office, duty, franchise, liberty, custom, privilege, practice, or procedure, or other matter or thing not existing or in force; and

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Any warrant, order, rules, or other matter or thing made in pursuance of any enactment hereby repealed shall continue and be of the same effect as if made in pursuance of this Act; and

Any fees or poundage authorised to be taken by or in pursuance of any enactment hereby repealed may continue to be taken until altered in pursuance of this Act.

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Where any enactment repealed by this Act applied to any coroner, escheator, or other officer, he shall continue to be governed by such enactment in like manner as if it had not been repealed; Provided that any enactment of this Act which is substituted as regards a sheriff or sheriff’s officer for the enactment so repealed, shall apply to such coroner, escheator, or officer, in lieu of the enactment so repealed.