High sheriff

A high sheriff is a ceremonial officer for each shrieval county of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, or the chief sheriff of a number of paid sheriffs in U.S. states who outranks and commands the others in their court-related functions. In Canada, the High Sheriff provides administrative services to the supreme and provincial courts.

The office existed in the Irish Free State, but was abolished in 1926.

In England and Wales, the term "high sheriff" for the sheriff of a county was used at least as early as 1531. This may have helped distinguish the high sheriffs from the undersheriffs, the deputies they appointed, and from sheriffs of cities and boroughs designated counties corporate. The sheriffs of the counties created by the Local Government Act 1972, incepting on 1 April 1974 were statutorily titled High Sheriffs.

The office is now an unpaid privilege with ceremonial duties, the sheriffs being appointed annually by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council except for Cornwall, where the high sheriff is appointed by the Duke of Cornwall (currently the Prince of Wales) and for Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire, where they are appointed by the monarch in the right of the Duchy of Lancaster. In England and Wales the office's civil (civil judgment) enforcement powers exist but are not exercised by convention.

The website of the High Sheriffs’ Association of England and Wales stated in 2021 that the role was a "non-political Royal appointment", for one year, and unpaid.