Making an Irish Free State City – The end of high sheriffs

Mid-way through the year of 1926, the office of High Sheriff in the Irish Free State was abolished. It was sanctioned by the Court Officers Act of 1926 and received the signature of the Governor-General, Cork was one of 27 high sheriff roles that were disbanded. It was another key part in the evolution of the Free State. Roles were abolished in 23 administrative counties and in four county boroughs.

In Irish history, the high sheriff was the primary judicial, ceremonial, and administrative representative of the English and British monarch within a county. The office dated back to the thirteenth century following the Anglo-Norman invasion.

Early sheriff appointments are recorded in places like Dublin in 1258AD and in county Cork in 1319AD. Over the following centuries, counties were gradually “shired”, extending the role across Ireland. The post was usually held for one-year terms by wealthy local landowners or members of the Anglo-Irish gentry.

In 1605, the city of Cork and its liberties were separated from the county of Cork, and became its own distinct county. In 1608-09, a charter by James II made the walled town of Cork a town corporate.

The document granted it self-government, specific civic privileges, and status as a legal “body politic” separate from the surrounding county. The walled town of Cork had already possessed mayoral, sheriffs and corporation member or councillor roles. In 1608-09, the Corporation of Cork itself subsequently appointed a separate high sheriff role for Cork city.

The high sheriff role was one with multiple functions. In the early days, the high sheriff held two court sessions a year where land disputes in particular were frequently resolved. The functions expanded to take in law and order and the maintenance of the peace, and commanding for all intents and purpose a police force before modern police services.

The high sheriffs also implemented High Court writs, managed local jails, and carried out judicial sentences. They acted as the returning officer to supervise parliamentary elections and manage polling. They formally welcomed representatives of the king and queen. General Irish history books detail that the role’s military and prime representative powers shifted over time to military governors and lord-lieutenants.

The office of high sheriff began to become defunct in the Irish Free State after 1922. When the Courts of Justice Act was passed in 1924, the office became an empty title with no duties attached to it as the grand juries were disbanded. The act established a new court system for the Irish Free State.

It created the Supreme Court of the Irish Free State and provided for the appointment of the first chief justice of the Irish Free State.

This 1924 Act provided for the transfer of functions under-sheriffs. The Court Officers Act of 1945 created the office of sheriff and provided, subject to a ministerial order, for the transfer of functions from any remaining under-sheriffs to the sheriff and for the transfer of functions from county registrars to sheriffs.

The High Sheriff of Cork city in mid-1926, at the point of disbanding, was Sir John Scott. He had held the position for eight years in all, from 1891-1893 and from 1920-1926.

He was appointed by members of the Corporation of Cork.

Sir John Scott had a long connection with the shipping industry and all aspects maritime. His obituary in the Cork Examiner in 1931 reveals that his grandfather was Edward Scott, a member of an old Cork family who founded Scott Harley and Company in the early nineteenth century and who pursued business in the shipping and ship-building industry.

John was knighted in 1892 and was mayor of Cork in 1896. At the age of 70 in 1920, he was a successful Commercial candidate in the local elections of January 1920.

In previous decades, he had been linked to the nationalist movement in Cork. For over forty years, he was a member of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, and during the same period was a trustee and honorary secretary of Cork Fever Hospital.

John was a past president of the Cork Incorporated Chamber of Commerce and Shipping and was chairman for Cork Unionist Association. He also was a member of the Poor Law Guardians, the Eglinton Lunatic Asylum and a secretary of the Cork Musical Society, which staged many Gilbert and Sullivan light operas at Cork Opera House.

In 1926, on Sir John Scott losing his high sheriff position, he also consequently lost his ex-officio seat on the Cork Harbour Board.

At a meeting of that body on 14 July 1926, Lord Mayor Cllr Sean French took an opportunity of paying a tribute to Sir John Scott for his services to the city of Cork. The minutes of the meeting were published in the Cork Examiner, a day after the meeting.

Lord Mayor Cllr French, a member of Sinn Féin, noted the political differences between them. “I am probably the member of the board who had greater differences with him than anyone else, and I realise the party to which you have given service to before I was born; but though have taken the direct opposite line to you, I would like the privilege of paying tribute to the service be had given to the city.”

Board member Mr Mercier said that the lord mayor had appropriately voiced their views. He highlighted that he was a unique personality. “Those who were associated with him on public boards were quick to realise the readiness of his repartee, the aptness of his readiness of his repartee, the aptness of his quotations, either in prose or poetry. and the way he rose to an occasion in song at certain times. He never was at a loss for a word, while his indomitable spirit carried him through, whether the odds mere 10 оr 100 to 1 against him, and has always came through undismayed and unafraid.”

Many thanks to Dara McGrath in Cork Public Museum for the sourcing of the picture of Sir John Scott from the museum’s collections.

Upcoming September Historical Walking Tour with Kieran and end of season:

All free, two hours, no booking required.

Saturday 26 September: The Historic Peninsula of Mahon. Explore social histories & the stories of some of the former big house estates in the area, meet at Blackrock Garda Station entrance at 2.30pm.