the office of shire-reeve or sheriff was created by
Sheriff The word sheriff is a contraction of the term "shire reeve". The term, from the Old English scÄ«rgerefa, designated a royal official responsible for keeping the peace (a "reeve") throughout a shire or county on behalf of the king.[2] The term was preserved in England notwithstanding the Norman Conquest. From the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the term spread to several other regions, at an early point to Scotland, latterly to Ireland and to the United States.