Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/504

 496 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK Octobe shrievalty of Lincolnshire committed to her trust, Philip de Marc being constituted her assistanftherein. Which office she also held in 1 Henry III, Geffrey de Cerland being then her substitute. . . . And in 2 Henry III was again constituted sheriffess of Lincolnshire, as also governess of the city and castle of Lincolne,^ &c. In his comments on ' the military functions of the sheriff ' ,^ Mr. Morris observes that ' the Norman vicomte was keeper of the king's castles, and the earlier sheriffs of the Conqueror often appear in this capacity. . . although sheriffs were not necessarily custodes castelli ' .^ It has always seemed to me that this con- nexion between the sheriff and the king's chief castle in a county is one of the principal distinctions introduced at the Conquest, between the sheriff's office before and after that event.* For the castle itself was a novelty introduced by the Normans. Of the other two points which I mentioned at the outset the hereditary shrievalty has received, I hope, further illustration in this paper, while the assumption, by the sheriff, of a surname derived from the said castle is a practice which seems to account for the style ' WQliam de Norwich '. J, H. Round. » Baronage, i. 598. * Ante, xzxiii, 161-3. castle [sic] of Clifford to farm, but it was actually held by Ralph de Todoni (Domesday Book, i. 173) '. On p. 1G8, however, another foot-note states that ' Gilbert the sheriff of Herefordshire held at farm the castelleria and boroUgh of Clifford {Domesday Book, L183)'. This (183) is the right page ref erence ; the passage is a difficult one. Stapleton (Magn. Rot. Scacc. Norm., i. xxxv. ) observes that ' A vicecomitatus, as the name implies, originated in the lieutenancy, ... of a certain territory within which aid was levied for castle-guard annexed to the casteUum of the Comes, and therefore denominated also a casteUania or castellaria, being conferred upon personages, his fideles, for purposes of military defence and governance. These vicecomites or casteUani had, &c. . . . and after the laws of hereditary succession had been embodied in the feudal code, the vicomtd was not unfrequently converted into an hereditary fieL The charge was, however, purely military,' &c. ' In the reign of Henry II the hereditary vicomtes paid customarily a fixed annual sum by way of ferm for their vicomtis.'
 * A footnote (p. 102) states that ' Gilbert the sheriff of Herefordshire had the
 * Cf. Powicke, Loss of Normandy, pp. 51, 294 f.