shrievalty

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English

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Noun

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shrievalty (plural shrievalties)

  1. The office, jurisdiction, or tenure of a sheriff
    • 1913, Clement King Shorter, George Borrow and His Circle[1]:
      John Timbs, in his Walks and Talks about London, tells us that Phillips's colleague in the shrievalty was one Smith, who afterwards became Lord Mayor: The personnel of the two sheriffs presented a sharp contrast.
    • 1911, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Brother Copas[2]:
      He ought to do something to make his shrievalty memorable .
    • 1851, Various, Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851[3]:
      --Can any of your readers inform me the origin of the delivery of water-buckets, glazed and painted with the city arms, given to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex at the expiration of the year of their shrievalty?
    • 1663, Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys, September/October 1663[4]:
      After discourse of this, and of supplying the garrison with some more horse, we rose; and Sir J. Minnes and I home again, finding the street about our house full, Sir R. Ford beginning his shrievalty to-day and, what with his and our houses being new painted, the street begins to look a great deal better than it did, and more gracefull.

Synonyms

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