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The chief officer of a shire or county, to whom is intrusted the execution of the laws, the serving of judicial writs and processes, and the preservation of the peace.

inally under the supervision of an earl; a territorial division, usually identical with a county, but sometimes limited to a smaller district; as, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Richmondshire, Hallamshire. An indefinite number of these hundreds make up a county or shire. Blackstone.

of property, at some period or other of their lives, are ambitious of representing their county in Parliament. Blackstone.

anistry. This family [the O'Hanlons] were tanists of a large territory within the present county of Armagh. M. A. Lower.

In Canada, one of the subdivisions of a county.

ishes into nothing. South. Transitory action (Law), an action which may be brought in any county, as actions for debt, and the like; -- opposed to local action. Blackstone. Bouvier.

One of three ancient divisions of a county in England; -- now called riding. [Written also riding.] Blackstone.

A court of record, held by the sheriff twice a year in every hundred within his county. Blount.

A neighborhood or near place; the place or county in which anything is alleged to have happened; also, the place where an action is laid. The twelve men who are to try the cause must be of the same venue where the demand is made. Blackstone.

rents. See Vicontiels. -- Vicontiel writs, such writs as were triable in the sheriff, or county, court.

An officer who formerly supplied the place of the count, or earl; the sheriff of the county.

A division of a county. [Eng. & Scot.]

Of or pertaining to a weald, esp. to the weald in the county of Kent, England. [Obs.] Fuller.

Ireland it is often made from malted barley. Bourbon whisky, corn whisky made in Bourbon County, Kentucky. -- Crooked whisky. See under Crooked. -- Whisky Jack (Zoöl.), the Canada jay (Perisoreus Canadensis). It is noted for its fearless and familiar habits when it frequents the camps of lumbermen in the winter seas…

A county in the north of England. Yorkshire grit, a kind of stone used for polishing marble, and copperplates for engravers. Simmonds. -- Yorkshire pudding, a batter pudding baked under meat.