Note 413 — Book XI.

Ballivum. It is the opinion of Sir Henry Spelman, that we received the term from the Normans. There is, indeed, frequent mention of such an officer in the Grand Custumary. (c. 4. &c.) But Lord Coke thinks, we received it from the Saxons. It occurs in a law of Edward the Confessor, if it be not an interpolation of a later age. (Ed. Conf. LL. c. 35.) It has been received in a variety of significations—As meaning a Judge, an Officer of the Crown, a Bailiff of a hundred, of a Liberty, and of a Borough, of a Manor and of an Estate. (Spelm. Gloss. ad voc.) Cowell, who deduces the word from the French, thinks our Sheriffs were formerly called Bailiffs, as their Counties are termed Bailiwicks. (Cowell ad voc.) See Fleta L. 2.