Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

never having been entrusted to him, his jurisdiction as
regards crimes was usually _ said to be limited to those
punishable arbitrarily, that is, by imprisonment, fine or
admonition. ’ 5
. As a ,C0“s®qKliencre of the suppression of the Jacobite
Tn!i0f 1745, after lst March 1748 a11 heritable
sheriffships were extinguished, and no sheriffship was to be
thereafter granted either heritably or for life or for any
certain term exceeding one year, but this provision was
not taken advantage of, and the office of sheriff-principal
practically ceased, though that name is sometimes given
to the sheriff-depute, 20 Geo. II. c. 43. The Act declared
that there should be but one sheriff-depute or stewart-
depute m every shire or stewartry, who was to be an
advocate of three years’ standing, appointed by the crown
with such continuance as His Majesty should think fit for
the next seven years, and after that period ad vitam aut
cMpam. This period was extended by 28 Geo. II. c. 7
for fifteen years, and thereafter (since 1769) the sheriff-
depute has held his office ad vitam aut culvam Power
was given to him by 20 Geo. II. c. 43 to appoint one or
more persons as substitutes during his pleasure, for whom
he should be answerable. At first no legal qualification
was necessary and no salary paid, but gradually the
sheriff-depute delegated more legal business to the sub¬
stitute, and before 1761 it had become customary for the
sheriff-depute to give him some allowance. In 1787 he
was placed on the civil establishment and paid by the
crown; in 1825 a qualification of three years’ standing
(now five years by 40 and 41 Viet. c. 50) as an advocate
or procurator before a sheriff court was required (6 Geo.
IV. c. 23); in 1838 he was made removable by the sheriff-
depute, only with the consent of the lord president and
lord justice clerk, and it was made compulsory that he
should reside in the sheriffdom, the provision of 20 Geo.
II. c. 43, which required the sheriff-depute so to reside
tor four months of each year, being repealed (1 and 2 Viet,
c. 119); and in 1877 the right of appointment of the
substitutes was transferred from the sheriff-depute to
the crown (40 and 41 Viet. c. 50).
While the sheriff-depute has still power to hear cases in
the first instance, and is required to hold a certain number
of sittings in each place where the sheriff-substitute holds
courts, and also once a year a small-debt court in every
place where a circuit small-debt court is appointed to be
held the ordinary course of civil procedure is that the
s lenff-substitute acts as judge of first instance, with an
appeal under certain restrictions from his decision to the
sheriff-depute, and from him to the court of session in all
causes exceeding £25 in value. An appeal direct from the
s enff-substitute to the court of session is competent, but
is not often resorted to.
As regards criminal proceedings, summary trials are
usually conducted by the sheriff-substitute; trials with a
jury either by him or, in important cases, by the sheriff-
depute. The sheriff-substitute also has charge of the pre¬
liminary investigation into crime, the evidence in which,
called a precognition, is laid before him, and if necessary
taken before him on oath at the instance of his procurator-
fiscal, the local crown prosecutor.
S H E —S H E
801
he duties of the sheriff-depute are now divided into ministerial or
auministrative and judicial. The ministerial are the supervision
or the accounts of the inferior officers of the sheriffdom; the
superintendence of parliamentary elections ; the holding by him¬
self or his substitutes of the courts for registration of electors ;
the preparation of the list of persons liable to serve both on
criminal and civil juries; the appointment of sheriff officers and
supervision of the execution of judicial writs by them ; and the
striking of the “ fiars.” He has also to attend the judges of justi¬
ciary at the circuit courts for the county or counties over which his
jurisdiction extends. Ho is generally responsible for the peace of
the county, and supervises the police establishment. He is ex officio
a justice of the peace and commissioner of supply. In addition
attached tothrL^W ? sheriffs'd<Tute> particular sheriffs are
Prison Board of ^i) u f°r the Reliefof the Poor, the
Commissioners, and the^ottish Kshefy
thetnate^n dUtieS °f th° akeriff-depute are," as regards crimes
£l by sheriff 3 ^7““ If ^ ^ °! *he
to takeVem ThlS’ 11 aS summary trials if he chooses
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the con2Cyfhe haS a (Tlulative and alternative jurisdiction with
the court of session, and in the service of heirs with theXriff of
excluded" aflu'tec ’:i.'isdict,iou1 of the sheriff was absolutely
excruaea alter the institution of the court of session in four
rights ffiknffiWof acti?n~(1)re]ative to property in lands or
,, " t r”Vands > (2) requiring the use of peculiar forms of action
declarat0r, reduction, and suspension; (3) involving the
court ffifeSon and^fr’ tiTST6 ^able jurisdiction ff the
couit or session , and (4) for the determination of rights of status
statuetesaw1hichaCLeaSeS iQ "ihi-h th-e Proceediugs rest on special
session “ ®xclufve jurisdiction to the court of
session. But large exceptions have been made by recent lerisla
tion from this exclusion. By another series of statutes for the
most part connected with local administration, as the Road Burial
A-Xthe foSSXX'X368’ an r General P°lice and Education
A"ts> ,the jurisdiction of the court of session is excluded either as
SciS“uS[ctila C0Urt °f MVie"'’ and the Sheriff «**
WhlCl\the sh!viS holds are (!) ^e criminal court;
(2) the ordinary civil court; (3) the small-debt court for cases
under £12 m value (6 Geo. IV. c. 48); (4) the debts recovery court
for cases above £12 and under £50 in value (30 and 31 Viet. c. 96)
hf^nbfont1? reSls.trati°n court. His judgment in the criminal court
is subject to review by the court of justiciary, and in the ordinary
ci vil court and the debts recovery court by the court of session. In
he small debt court it is final, except in certain cases where an
appeal lies to the next circuit court of justiciary. The sheriff-
substitute may competently exercise all the judicial jurisdiction of
the sheriff, subject to appeal in civil cases other than small-debt
cases. As regards his administrative functions he assists the
s enff generally, and may act for him in the registration and fiars
court, and he superintends the preliminary stage of criminal
inquiries, consulting with the sheriff if necessary ; but the other
administrative duties of the office are conducted by the sheriff-
depute m person. The salaries of sheriffs-depute vary from £2000
riV 00 a year’ ^hose of sheriffs-substitute from £1400 to £500.
d here is a principal sheriff-clerk appointed by the crown for each
Gounty, who has depute clerks under him in the principal towns
and a, procurator-fiscal for the conduct of criminal prosecutions for
e^C and ^strict of & county, who is appointed by the
sheriff with the sanction of the home secretary.
Besides the sheriffs of counties, there is a sheriff of chancery
appointed by the crown, whose duties are confined to the service of
heirs, with a salary of £500. jvp)
SHEELOCK, Thomas (1678-1761), bishop of London,
the son of Dr William Sherlock, noticed below, was born
at London in 1678. He was educated at Catherine Hall,
Cambridge, and in 1704 succeeded his father as master of
the Temple. He took a prominent part in the Bangorian
controversy against Hoadly, whom he succeeded as bishop
of Bangor in 1728; he was afterwards translated to
Salisbury in 1734, and to London in 1738. He pub¬
lished against Collins’s Grounds and Reasons of the Chris¬
tian Religion a volume of sermons entitled The Use and
Intent of Prophecy in the Several Ages of the World (1725);
and in reply to Woolston’s Discourses on the Miracles he
wrote a volume entitled The Trial of the Witnesses of the
Resurrection of Jesus (1729), which in a very short time
ran through fourteen editions. His Pastoral Letter (1750)
on “the late earthquakes” had a circulation of many
thousands, and four volumes of Sermons which he pub¬
lished in his later years (1754-58) were also at one time
highly esteemed. He died in 1761. A collected edition
of his works in 5 vols. 8vo, by Hughes, appeared in 1830
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