Note 262 — Chapter VIII · The Governors of the City

Mr. Baddeley continues the account of the changes in the mode of election up to the present time: ‘From 1642 to 1651 the Mayor’s claim to elect a sheriff was always contested. For the year 1652 and for some years afterwards the Mayor neither nominated nor elected a sheriff, but in 1662, when he would have elected one Bludworth as sheriff, the commonalty claimed their right, although they accepted the Mayor’s nominee. The prerogative thus claimed by the Mayor, although frequently challenged, was exercised for the most part by subsequent Mayors down to 1674, when exception was taken to William Roberts, whom the Mayor had formally nominated (according to a custom which is said to have arisen in the time of Elizabeth) by drinking to him at a public banquet. In the following year and for some years later the Mayor exercised his prerogative of electing one of the sheriffs without opposition. In 1703 an Act was passed declaring the right of election of sheriffs to be in the liverymen of the several companies of the city in Common Hall assembled.’ It was, however, lawful for the Lord Mayor to nominate for the office. ‘By an Act of 1748 the Lord Mayor might continue to nominate to the extent of nine persons in the whole.’ By an Act of Common Council in 1878 the right of election to the office of sheriff was vested in the liverymen of the several companies of the city in Common Hall assembled. The Lord Mayor nominating one or more freemen (not exceeding three in the whole) for the shrievalty.