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 the name of the person elected under the seal of the coroners and of knights or other four of the richest and most honourable men of county if the knights are not present, so that the king may commit office to him, as is customary, as the king, to avoid the damage inon him and the oppression of his people by the sheriffs of the who have hitherto assumed the office at the procuration of themand their friends, hag ordered that all sheriffs of the realm shall elected in the full countv court by the men of the counties, from the honourable and fit men there, according to the statutes, and the shall answer for those whom they elect, at their peril, both to the and the people of those bailiwicks. By K.