Catalogue of the High Sheriffs of the County of Leitrim from the Year 1605 to the Year 1800

LEITRIM, as a county, dates back, as well I can discover, to the year 1569, the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. According to Sir Richard Bolton in Harris’s Hibernica, a statute was passed in that year (11th Eliz., ch. 9) dividing the province of Connaught into seven counties, of which Leitrim was one; and it has always continued in that province. Up to 1569, the areas now known as Leitrim and Cavan were called West and East Brefni, and sometimes the country of the O’Rourkes. Some authorities give 1584 as the year of the actual formation of the county. In that year Sir John Perrot, the Queen’s Deputy in Ireland, marched into Connaught, and formed the province into shireland.

The office of Sheriff (A.-S. scir geréfa, the reeve or governor of a shire) is of purely British origin. It is very old, dating back to Saxon times. A statute, passed as long ago as the time of Edward II, effected radical changes in the manner of the choosing of this officer, doing away with the popular election. Ever since the enactment of this statute the custom, at least in England, has been for the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Judges of the Common Law courts to meet in the Court of Exchequer on the morrow of All Souls’ Day, and there and then to nominate three persons for each county to the Crown. The monarch in council afterwards appoints one of the three, and this is known as the pricking of the sheriffs. The custom still obtains, and on it the Irish procedure is modelled.

Whether the original practice of popular election of sheriffs or that formulated by the statute of Edward II was the practice first introduced into Ireland seems doubtful. At all events the answer to the complaint presented to King Edward III in 1342, that sheriffs were elected “contrary to the statute,” reads as follows:—

…it is the king’s intention that the people of each county elect each year in the Exchequer before the Chancellor, Treasurer, and others of the Council, a sufficient person who is resident, and has whereof to answer to the king in the same county for the office of sheriff, and that they remain in office one year.

This complaint (No. XX) is found among the petitions presented on behalf of the Parliament of Ireland to the king just named.

Until this country was marked out into shireland there could have been no introduction of sheriffs.

There is a tradition, which has no documentary corroboration, that in the tenth year of the reign of King John certain portions of Ireland were divided into administrative units, corresponding in some measure to English counties, and that sheriffs were appointed; but, according to Mr. Berry, from whom I have quoted this, the Magna Charta Hiberniæ, 1 Henry III, is the earliest extant enactment dealing with sheriffs in Ireland.^[1]

Another very old enactment, known as the Statute of Sheriffs, which had been passed in England in 1316, was transmitted by King Edward II to the Chancellor of Ireland in 1324. It may be found in the Red Book of the Exchequer.

A sheriff continues in office for one year only, and this limitation seems as old as the office itself. Now and then it has occurred that he served a second term: but he cannot be compelled to do so. The office is not only gratuitous, but compulsory. In virtue of it, the holder, during his year, ranks first in the county, and takes precedence even of noblemen. In conveying complaints of the Irish Parliament as to the grievances under which the country suffered, addressed in 1641 to King Charles I, the Commissioners state:—

The office of sheriff is one of great trust and importance, and should only be given to people who have estates and positions in the various counties, and not to persons of mean position, not residents, to whom shrievalties have recently been given…

No doubt such men as Con O’Rourke, who was High Sheriff of Leitrim that very year, were here aimed at. Unless the election were, as originally, by popular suffrage, it is not easy to see how he and some others of the “mere Irish” could have attained the position.

The High Sheriffs of the county of Cork have been traced by Mr. Berry from the year 1254 to the Restoration. From that period forward an almost complete list for the same county was compiled by another writer. For no other Irish county, as far as I am aware, has any such list yet appeared, though records are becoming yearly more accessible. If Leitrim were not formed into shireland till 1584, it could have had no such officer before that date. The Memoranda Roll, Hil. 21 Eliz. (1579), seems to corroborate this. It contains letters patent for sheriffs for twenty-one counties of Ireland, but Leitrim is not mentioned amongst them. Hence, very probably the list here given approaches completion.

The credit of having drawn up the following catalogue, which sheds a good deal of light on the earlier history of the county, is to be almost wholly ascribed to the late Arthur Harrison, Esq. Mr. Harrison, a highly respected gentleman, and a most efficient officer, was for thirty-two years (ending with 1895) sub-sheriff of Leitrim. His death took place soon after his relinquishment of office. The catalogue of sheriffs, which begins in 1605, and extended to the year 1869, is most carefully compiled.

In the list of High Sheriffs, in the earlier years, there are indeed many gaps: but from 1655 to 1800, with the insignificant omission of two years, 1691 and 1692, all the names have been ascertained. In the Evidence Chamber of Kilkenny Castle is preserved a list, returned by the Judges in 1644, of three names in each county, from which one was to be selected for the Shrievalty for the ensuing year. The list is written on vellum. The fact that three names are given in each instance is a proof, if proof were needed, that the custom at present obtaining is very ancient. For “Leytrim” the three names are—

Robertus Parcke ar̃.
*Jacobus Ringe ar̃.
Willelmus Parcke ar̃.

An asterisk placed before the name of one of the three, as in the second instance, indicates the gentleman chosen.^[2]

In the so-called Diary of Sir Frederick Hamilton of Manorhamilton (first published in London in 1643), under date February 24th, there is a long description of a petty battle fought on that day, I am convinced, at Moragh, at the foot of Benbo mountain. “Mulmurry MacTernan (chiefe of that name), a justice of the peace who had beene sheriffe of this county,” was among those slain and stripped.^[3] This gentleman’s name, accordingly, should fill up one of the gaps in the list before 1643. The family to which he belonged has been long and honourably connected with the country.

Though Mr. Harrison, the compiler of the catalogue, had exceptional opportunities, it must have cost him a vast deal of time and labour. It was printed for private circulation forty years ago, and all the copies, save one, seem to have disappeared. Indeed, except the one before me, kindly lent by Thomas Corscadden, Esq., J.P., who in 1903 was High Sheriff of the county, I know of no other, nor have I ever heard or found a trace of another.

The spelling of the proper names of persons and places is that given in the county records. For some notes on the family of Reynolds or MacRannals, members of which enjoyed the highest positions in the county in the earliest recorded years, I would refer the reader to vol. xxxv. (1905), page 139, of this Journal. A brief account of the O’Rourkes, another of the old Irish county families, and of their insignia, may also be found in vol. xxxvi., pp. 136, 317, and 424.

In his very elaborate roll, Mr. Harrison, in addition to the High Sheriffs and Members of Parliament, assigns a column each to three other county officers, namely, the Foreman of the Grand Jury, the Sub-Sheriff, and the Lieutenant of the County and Custos Rotulorum.

As to the foremen of the Grand Jury, they were, as is to be expected, the men who acted as High Sheriffs in previous or succeeding years, or who then, before, or after represented the county in Parliament. The earliest name is that of Richard Cunningham, who was foreman at the Spring Assizes of 1778. Then Robert Clements, Spring, 1780; and Thomas Tenison, Summer, 1780; Right Honourable Henry Thomas, Clements, M.P., 1781–2; Right Honourable Owen Wynne, 1782–3. The last gentleman’s name, alone of all I have noticed, is not found in any of the other lists.

Assuming that sub-sheriffs were appointed at all, Mr. Harrison was not quite so successful in tracing their names. Mr. William West in 1793 is the first of them. Mr. West also filled the post in 1795, and again in 1798. The High Sheriff of 1797, Mr. Cullen of Skreeny, Manorhamilton, had a Mr. Pat Whittaker as his sub-officer. From 1799 till 1813 (exclusive) various members of the Lloyd family served as sub-sheriffs, except that in 1801 Christopher James Nesbitt, in 1807 Thomas Church, and in 1808 Michael Ganly, held the post.

LIST OF HIGH SHERIFFS, COUNTY LEITRIM.