County

One of the civil divisions of a country for judicial and political purposes.

1 Bl. Comm. 113.

Etymologically, it denotes that portion of the country under the immediate government of a count.

Id. 116.

The United States are generally divided into counties. Counties are, in many of the states, divided into townships or town3. In the New England states, however, towns are the basis of all civil divisions, and the counties are rather to be considered as aggregates of towns, so far as their origin is concerned. In Pennsylvania, the state was originally divided into three counties by William Penn. See Proud, Hist. vol.

1, p. 234; Id. vol. 2, p. 258.

In the English law, this word signifies the same as "shire," — county being derived from the French, and shire from the Saxon. Both these words signify a circuit or portion of the realm into which the whole land is divided, for the better government thereof, and the more easy administration of justice. There is no part of England that is not within some county; and the shirereeve (sheriff) was the governor of the province under the comes, earl or count.