Note 42 — Book I.
John Beames translation
We learn from Bracton, that the Sheriff was in the habit of exercising Jurisdiction over many Pleas which did not belong to him ex officio; but, in such cases, he acted by the King’s precept, not as Sheriff, but as Justiciarius Regis, (Bracton 154. b.) The distinction is important, and seems not unknown to the Grand Custumary of Normandy. (Vide c. 2.)