Initially, an office for a lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became an annual appointment following the Provisions of Oxford in 1258.
[1] Besides his judicial importance, the sheriff had ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs.
Probably the most powerful of the early Sheriffs was Sir Walter de la Haye, a highly regarded Crown administrator and later a judge, who held office from 1272 to 1284.
[3] The first (High) Shrievalties were established before the Norman Conquest in 1066 and date back to Saxon times.
[4] In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence.