Pricking For Sheriffs

The name of an old method of electing the sheriffs of the different counties of England. Originally, the sheriffs were chosen by the people in their folkmote or county court; but these popular elections growing tumultuous, and the crown also seeking to augment its influence in parliament, they were put an end to by 9 Edw. II. st. 2, and it was enacted that the sheriffs should be assigned by the chancellor, treasurer, barons of the exchequer, and by the justices, and, in the absence of the chancellor, by the others, without him; and since the time of Henry VI. it became the custom for these or some of these distinguished and learned persons was latterly altered to the morrow of St. Martin, by the act for abbreviating Michaelmas term, 24 Geo. II. ch. 48, § 12), and then and there to propose three persons to the king (or queen), who afterwards appointed one of them to be the sheriff, and this was done by marking each name with the prick of a pin; and for that reason this particular election was generally termed pricking for sheriffs.

Brown.