The Sheriff of Inverness was historically the office responsible for enforcing
law and order and bringing criminals to justice in
Inverness
Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
, Scotland. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the hereditary sheriffs were replaced by salaried sheriff-deputes, qualified advocates who were members of the Scottish Bar.
Following mergers the office became the Sheriff of Inverness, Elgin & Nairn in 1882 and the Sheriff of Inverness, Moray, Nairn & Ross & Cromarty in 1946. That sheriffdom was dissolved in turn in 1975 and replaced by that of the
Sheriff Principal of Grampian, Highland and Islands.
Sheriffs of Inverness
*
William de Moravia (1204)
*William Pratt (1227)
*Michael Mowat (1234)
*Lawrence Grant (1263)
*Alexander Murray (1266)
*William de Soulis (1291)
*Alan Durward (1291)
*
Reginald le Chen (1292)
*William de la Hay (1295)
*John Stirling of Moray (1305-?)
*
Alexander Pilche (1307-1328)
*Maurice Grant (1340)
*Robert de Chisholm (1359)
*John of Ross (1360)
*John Hay of Tullybothill (1364)
*Galfrid de Munbeyn (1370)
*Alan de Winton (1370)
*William Lambe (1376)
*
Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan
Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, called the Wolf of Badenoch (1343 – July 1394), was a Scottish royal prince, the third son of King Robert II of Scotland by his first wife Elizabeth Mure. He was Justiciar of Scotia and held large territories ...
(1380-1390)
**William Fotheringay - 1383 - Acting
*
Thomas Dunbar, 5th Earl of Moray (1390-?)
**William Fotheringay - 1398 - Deputy
*Hugh Fraser (1430)
*William Leslie (1440)
**John Grant - 1442 - Deputy
*
John Macdonald, Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles (1455-1460)
**Celestine of the Isles - 1460 - Deputy
*
George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly
George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly (died 19 October 1576), was Lord Chancellor of Scotland and major conspirator of his time.
Biography
The second son of the 4th Earl, George Gordon was the Sheriff of Inverness from 1556. As Captain of Badenoch, ...
(1556-?)
*
George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly
George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly (156213 June 1636) was a Scottish nobleman who took a leading role in the political and military life of Scotland in the late 16th century, and around the time of the Union of the Crowns.
Biography
The son o ...
(at 1584)
*
Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat
Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat (1570–1633) was a Scottish courtier and landowner.
Simon Fraser was the son of Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Lovat and Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Arran, Elizabeth Stewart daughter of John S ...
(c. 1599)
;High-Sheriffs
*
Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat
Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, ( 1667 – 9 April 1747) was a Scottish landowner and head of Clan Fraser of Lovat. Convicted of high treason in the United Kingdom, high treason for his role in the Jacobite rising of 1745, he was the last ma ...
(c. 1667–1747)
;Sheriffs-Depute
*Simon Fraser, 1781–1810
*William Fraser Tytler, 1810–1852
*
George Young
George Young may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George Young (filmmaker), Australian stage manager and film director in the silent era
* George Young (rock musician) (1946–2017), Australian musician, songwriter, and record producer
* G ...
, 1853–1860 (
Sheriff of Haddington and Berwick, 1860–62)
*
Andrew Rutherfurd Clark, 1860–1862
(
Sheriff of Haddington and Berwick, 1862–69)
*William Ivory, 1862–1882
[
]
Sheriffs of Inverness, Elgin & Nairn (1882)
*William Ivory, 1882–1900[
*James Ferguson, 1905–1905]John Wilson, Lord Ashmore
John Wilson, Lord Ashmore (1857 – 8 July 1932) was a Scottish lawyer, a unionist parliamentary candidate, a sheriff principal and a judge.
Early life
Wilson was born in 1857 in Falkirk, where his father James Wilson was a solicitor. He was e ...
, 1905–1912Sheriff of Renfrew and Bute
Renfrew (; ; ) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the House of Stewart, Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Sc ...
, 1912)
*Alastair Oswald Morison Mackenzie, 1912–1917[ (]Sheriff of Renfrew and Bute
Renfrew (; ; ) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the House of Stewart, Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Sc ...
, 1917)
*George Watt KC, 1917– 1934 [ (Senator of the College of Justice from 1944)
* Ronald Peter Morison KC, 1944-1945 ]
Sheriffs of Inverness, Moray, Nairn & Ross & Cromarty (1946)
* John Cameron, 1946–1948 [
*''Sheriffdom dissolved in 1975 and replaced by that of ]Grampian, Highland and Islands
The Sheriff Principal of Grampian, Highland and Islands is the head of the judicial system of the sheriffdom of Grampian, Highland and Islands, one of the six sheriffdoms covering the whole of Scotland. The sheriffdom employs a number of legally ...
''.
See also
* Historical development of Scottish sheriffdoms
A sheriffdom is a judicial district of Scotland. Originally identical to the Shires of Scotland, from the eighteenth century many counties were grouped to form "sheriffdoms".
By 1975 there were 12 sheriffdoms, with only Lanarkshire not grouped ...
References
*
sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...
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