Bailiff

Bailiff, a keeper or superintendent. There are several kinds of bailiffs, as bailiffs of liberties, sheriff's bailiffs, bailiffs of lords of manor, etc. Sheriffs are also termed the Queen's bailiffs, and. they are bound to preserve the rights of the Crown in their respective bailiwicks, a word introduced by the Norman princes in imitation of the French, whose territory was divided out into bailiwicks (which is analogous to counties of England). the word bailiff, however, usually designates sheriff's officers, who are either (1) bailiffs of hundreds, who are officers appointed over those respective districts by the sheriffs to collect fines therein, to summon juries, to attend the judges and justices at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions, and also to execute writs and processes in the several hundreds. (2) Special bailiffs are that lower class of persons employed by the sheriffs for the express purpose of serving writs, making arrests, and levying executions, etc. (3) Those persons who have the custody of the king's castles are also often called bailiffs, as the bailiff of Dover Castle. (4) The chief magistrates of some particular towns and places are also often termed bailiffs, as "the bailiff of Westminster." There are also bailiffs of the county courts (termed high bailiffs, who, by their sub-bailiffs, execute the process of the court), bailiffe of courts farm, bailiffs of the forests, etc. The word is also used as applied to one who manages a farm.

In the United States the term is not so much in use, but where used it signifies a sheriff's deputy or constable, or some one liable to account to others for the rents and proceeds of an estate. The duties are performed by a deputy, who acts under the orders of the sheriff or magistrate.