1338-08-20, Kennington

To the coroners in co. Somerset, and to the knights and others to meet the next county court there. Order to elect a fit person from the men that county and co. Dorset, to be sheriff there, and to inform the king of the name of the person elected under the seal of the coroners and of feur knights or other four cf the richest and most honourable men of the county if the knights are not present, so that the king may commit the office to him, as is customary, as the king, to avoid the damage inflicted on him and the cppression of his people by the sheriffs of the realm, who have hitherto assumed the office at the procuration of themselves and their friends, has ordered that all sheriffs of the realm shall be elected in the full county court by the men of the counties, from the most honourable and fit men there, according to the statutes, and the men shall answer for those whom they elect, at their peril, both to the king and the people of those bailiwicks. : By K. The lke to all the coroners of all the counties of England, mutatis mutandis.