^ The English Historical Review NO. CXL.— OCTOBER 1920 * T/ie Early Sheriffs of Norfolk IN the article by Professor William Morris, of the University of California, on ' The Office of Sheriff in the Early Norman Period ' — the fruit of long and patient research — he has dealt, as his foot-notes show, with a subject of special interest to myself. There are three points which have always attracted me and on which it may be useful to supplement the information in his paper. The first is the connexion, in Norman times, between sheriff and castle ; the second is the system of hereditary (or quasi-hereditary) tenure of certain shrievalties ; the third is the practice, in such cases, of a sheriff adopting the name of the .county town as his own surname. In the three eastern counties we find indications of these notable developments, at a rather later time than that of which Mr. Morris treats, namely, from the reign of Henry I to that of John. The shrievalty of East Anglia is traced by him as held by Roger Bigod, possibly as late as his death in 1107,^ La'ter in the reign of Henry I we find it held ^ by a Robert Fitz Walter, of whom little is known, but two of whose sons held it in turn after him. I worked out the family history in 1901, and it may be of use to refer to my paper ^ for further details on the subject. In it I made full use of the information contained in the monograph on 8t. William of Norwich by the late Dr. Jessopp and Dr. M. R. James,* to which the former contributed a paper on ' East Anglia in the Time of Stephen ' (pp. xxvi-xxix), in addition to the foot-notes on the text, ' which are principally concerned with points of East Anglian history, and demanded a somewhat intimate acquaintance with Norfolk topography and family history ' (p. vi). I hope also, in the present paper, to ' Ante, xxxiii. 150 n. • Ramsey Cartulary, i. 148-9. ' ' The Origin of the Stewarts and their Chesney Connexion' (Oenealogist, xviii. 1-16
- Cambridge, 1896.
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