Sheriffdom: Difference between revisions

A{{Short '''sheriffdom''' is a judicialdescription|Judicial district in [[Scotland]]. }}

Sheriffdoms were originally identical to the shires [[countiesshires of Scotland]], originating in the twelfth century. Until the eighteenth century the office of sheriff was often hereditary, but this was ended following the unsuccessful [[Jacobite Rising of 1745]]. The [[Heritable Jurisdictions Act 1747]] revested the government of the shires in the Crown, compensating those office holders who were displaced. The [[Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747]] reduced the office of sheriff principal to a largely ceremonial one, with a sheriff depute or sheriff substitute appointed to each "county, shire or stewartry".<ref name=whetstone>{{cite journal |last1=Whetstone |first1=Ann E. |last2= |first2= |year= 1977|title=The Reform of the Scottish Sheriffdoms in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |publisher=The North American Conference on British Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=61–71 |doi=10.2307/4048219 |jstor=4048219}}</ref> The sheriff deputes, who were paid a salary by the Crown, were qualified [[Faculty of Advocates|advocates]] and took charge of sheriff courts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Guide to Sheriff Court Records|url=http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/sheriffCourt.asp|publisher=[[National Archives of Scotland]]|accessdateaccess-date=14 September 2012}}</ref> By the nineteenth century, the office of sheriff principal was an additional title held by the [[lord-lieutenant|lord lieutenant of the county]], and the Circuit Courts (Scotland) Act 1828 redesignated sheriff deputes as simply "sheriffs".<ref>9 Geo.4 c.29 s,22 "Sheriff-Deputes may be addressed by the title of Sheriff without the term Depute being added."</ref>

The Sheriffs Act of 1747 also began the grouping of two or more counties under as a single sheriffdom. This process continued so that by 1975 there were 12 sheriffdoms with only the county of [[Lanarkshire]] not combined.

New boundaries defined sheriffdoms in reference to [[Regions and districts of Scotland|regions, districts and islands areas]] which were then to be created on 16 May 1975.<ref>The Sheriffdoms Reorganisation Order 1974 S. I. 1974/2087 (S.191)</ref> This reduced the number of sheriffdoms to six.

|[[Sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin|Glasgow and Strathkelvin]]

||City of [[Glasgow]], part of [[East Dunbartonshire]] (wards 11-2611–26); and part of [[South Lanarkshire]] (wards 62-7462–74)

||[[Argyll and Bute]], [[North Ayrshire]], [[West Dunbartonshire]], [[Inverclyde]], [[East Renfrewshire]] and [[Renfrewshire]]; part of [[East Ayrshire]] (wards 1-20); and part of [[East Dunbartonshire]] (wards 1-101–10)

|[[Sheriffdom of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway|South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway]]

||The region of [[Dumfries and Galloway]]; the districts of [[Monklands, Scotland|Monklands]], [[Cumbernauld and Kilsyth (district)|Cumbernauld]], [[Hamilton, Scotland|Hamilton]], [[Motherwell, North Lanarkshire|Motherwell]], [[East Kilbride]], [[Kyle and Carrick]] and [[Cumnock and Doon Valley]]

||[[South Ayrshire]], [[Dumfries and Galloway]] and [[North Lanarkshire]]; part of [[East Ayrshire]], (wards 21-3021–30) and part of [[South Lanarkshire]] (wards 1-61)

||The counties of [[Perthshire|Perth]], [[Angus, Scotland|Angus]], [[Stirlingshire|Stirling]], [[Clackmannanshire|Clackmannan]], [[Fife]] and [[Kinross-shire|Kinross]]

||[[Angus, Scotland|Angus]], [[Clackmannanshire]], [[Dundee]] City, [[Falkirk]], [[Fife]], [[Perth and Kinross]] and [[Stirling]]

[[Category:ScottishSheriff sheriffscourts|*]]

[[Category:SubdivisionsAdministrative divisions of Scotland]]