left by the supreme ruler to the government of an earl. On the other hand, every county joined to a realm became a shire, or part of a shire. But many counties were not within any realm. Long after the formation of the ancient shires of Wales, the term "county" continued to be applied to Lordships Marchers which never even gave their names to shires, although, of course, comprised in the final shire-distribution.
The historian tracing the origin of the ancient shires of Wales is guided by the analogy of England. The Anglo-Saxon shires[1] were of two classes. Those of the first class were originally distinct royalties, formed by the Anglo-Saxons out of lands acquired from the Britons. Those of the second class arose from the dismemberment of the larger kingdoms, and seem to have been formed by placing one or more wapentakes or hundreds under the government of an ealdorman or earl. In some instances smaller shires have been annexed to a larger district. Formed thus, at various periods and upon different systems, it seems to follow that, the shires were not necessarily administered according to a uniform scheme. Often the same ealdorman or earl presided over several shires, and also held great offices of state or commands: and hence the shire-government was early exercised by deputies.
In Wales the same causes produced the same effects. Welch shires of the first class may be represented by Pembroke and Glamorgan, originally great Lordships Marchers or counties, forming no part of the royal domain consolidated by Edward I. and granted by him and his successors as the principality of Wales, but gradually acquiring the government, and with it the name, of shires; and at length declared and confirmed as such by the supreme authority. Those of the second class derive their origin from the Statute of Rhyddlan.
This Statute names six districts, viz.: 1, Anglesey; 2, Caernarvon; 3, Merioneth; 4, Flint; 5, Caermarthen; 6, Llanpader and Cardigan; but does not purport to erect them into shires, neither does it clearly refer to them as such.[2] The ancient national division into commotes seems to have been adopted as the basis of the new jurisdiction. As the Anglo-Saxon ealdorman or earl often presided over several shires, so the vice-comes under the Statute governed several commotes independent of each other. But every commote had its own coroner
- ↑ Palgrave's Ang.-Sax. Period, i. 116.
- ↑ The statute, as printed in the Record of Caernarvon (1828), and thence adopted in the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (1841), differs in some respects from that in the Statutes of the Realm (1812). There is some confusion between the abbreviations of comitatus and commotus, which words also appear to bear each a two-fold meaning, viz. the county or county court, and the commote or commote court.
