A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and in Australia. In parts of Australia, a shire is an administrative unit, but it is not synonymous with "county" there, which is a land registration unit. Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland and in the far northeast of England, the word is pronounced /ˈʃaɪər/. As a suffix in an English or Welsh place name, it is in most regions pronounced /-ʃər/, or sometimes /-ʃɪər/.
In the British Isles, "shire" is the original term for what is usually known as a county; the word county having been introduced at the Norman Conquest of England. The two are synonymous. Although in modern British usage counties are referred to as "shires" mainly in poetic contexts, terms such as Shire Hall remain common. Shire also remains a common part of many county names, and Dorchester in Dorset is the original and oldest 'shire' in England.
The word derives from the Old English scir, itself a derivative of the Proto-Germanic skizo (cf. Old High German scira), meaning care or official charge.[1] The system was first used in Wessex from the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement, and spread to most of the rest of England in the tenth century, along with West Saxon political control. In Domesday (1086) the city of York was divided into shires.[2] The first shires of Scotland were created in English-settled areas such as Lothian and the Borders, (Bernicia) in the ninth century. King David I more consistently created shires and appointed sheriffs across lowland shores of Scotland.
The shire in early days was governed by an Ealdorman and in the later Anglo-Saxon period by royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff. The shires were divided into hundreds or wapentakes, although other less common sub-divisions existed. An alternative name for a shire was a "sheriffdom" until sheriff court reforms separated the two concepts. In Scotland the word "county" was not adopted for the shires. Although "county" appears in some texts, "shire" was the normal name until counties for statutory purposes were created in the nineteenth century.
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Shire county
The phrase "shire county" applies, unofficially, to non-metropolitan counties in England, specifically those that are not unitary local authority areas.
Shire names in the United Kingdom
"Shire" also refers, in a narrower sense, to ancient counties with names that ended in "shire". These counties are typically (though not always) named after their county town.
The suffix -shire is attached to most of the names of English, Scottish and Welsh counties. It tends not to be found in the names of shires that were pre-existing divisions. Essex, Kent, and Sussex, for example, have never borne a -shire, as each represents a former Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Similarly Cornwall was a British kingdom before it became an English county. The term 'shire' is not used in the names of the six traditional counties of Northern Ireland or their counterparts in the rest of Ireland, where it is common to use "County" as a prefix to the county name.
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Shire names in England
Shires in England bearing the "-shire" suffix include: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire. These counties, on their historical boundaries, cover a little more than half the area of England. The counties that do not use "-shire" are mainly in three areas, in the south-east, south-west and far north of England.
The county of Devon is also known as Devonshire, although this is not an official name and is not often used outside the county. The counties of Dorset, Rutland and Somerset were occasionally Dorsetshire, Rutlandshire and Somersetshire, but these usages are now considered archaic.
Hexhamshire was a county in the north-east of England from the early 12th century until 1572, when it was incorporated into Northumberland.
Shire names in Scotland
In Scotland, barely affected by the Norman Conquest of England, the word "shire" prevailed over "county" until the 19th century. Earliest sources have the same usage of the "-shire" suffix as in England (though in Scots this was oftenmost "schyr"). Later the "Shire" appears as a separate word.
"Shire" names in Scotland include Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Morayshire, Nairnshire, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Stirlingshire, and Wigtownshire
In Scotland four shires have alternative names with the "-shire" suffix: Angus (Forfarshire), East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Midlothian (Edinburghshire) and West Lothian (Linlithgowshire).
Sutherland is occasionally still referred to as Sutherlandshire. Similarly, Argyllshire, Buteshire, Caithness-shire and Fifeshire are sometimes found. Also, Morayshire was previously called Elginshire. There is currently much debate about whether Argyllshire was ever really used.
Shire names in Wales
Shires in Wales bearing the "-shire" suffix include: Brecknockshire (or Breconshire), Caernarvonshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire, and Radnorshire.
In Wales, the counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix. The only traditional Welsh county that never takes "shire" is Anglesey.
Non-county "shires"
The suffix –shire could be a generalised term referring to a district. It did not acquire the strong association with county until later.
Other than these, the term was used for several other districts. Bedlingtonshire, Craikshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire were exclaves of County Durham, which were incorporated into Northumberland or Yorkshire in 1844. The suffix was also used for many hundreds, wapentakes and liberties such as Allertonshire, Blackburnshire, Halfshire, Howdenshire, Leylandshire, Powdershire, Pydarshire, Richmondshire, Riponshire, Salfordshire, Triggshire, Tynemouthshire, West Derbyshire and Wivelshire, counties corporate such as Hullshire, and other districts such as Applebyshire, Bamburghshire, Bunkleshire, Carlisleshire, Coldinghamshire, Coxwoldshire, Cravenshire, Hallamshire, Mashamshire and Yetholmshire.
Non-county shires were very common in Scotland. Kinross-shire and Clackmannanshire are arguably survivals from such districts. Non-county "shires" in Scotland include Bunkleshire, Coldinghamshire and Yetholmshire.
Richmondshire is today the name of a local government district of North Yorkshire.
Shires in Australia
"Shire" is the most common word in Australia for rural Local Government Areas (LGA). The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use the term "Shire" for this unit.
In contrast, South Australia uses district and region for its rural LGA units, while Tasmania uses municipality. Shires are generally functionally indistinguishable from towns, municipalities, or cities.
Three LGAs in outer metropolitan Sydney have populations exceeding that of towns or municipalities, but retain significant bushlands and/or semi-rural areas, have continued to use the title of 'Shire', possibly due to community demand or popularity, or for financial and socio-political gain. These three 'City-Shires' are:
- Sutherland Shire (which is commonly referred to as 'The Shire' )
- The Hills Shire ( 'The Garden Shire' , previously 'Baulkham Hills Shire' )
- Hornsby Shire ( 'The Bushland Shire' )
Shires in the United States
In 1634, eight "shires" were created in the Virginia Colony by order of Charles I, King of England. They were renamed as counties only a few years later. They were:
- Accomac Shire (now Accomack County, Virginia)
- Charles City Shire (now Charles City County, Virginia)
- Charles River Shire (now York County, Virginia)
- Elizabeth City Shire (now the City of Hampton, Virginia)
- Henrico Shire (now Henrico County, Virginia)
- James City Shire (now James City County, Virginia)
- Warwick River Shire (now the City of Newport News, Virginia)
- Warrosquyoake Shire (now Isle of Wight County, Virginia)
Among these Shires of Virginia, the five noted above are considered to be still existent in somewhat their same political form in Virginia as of 2006, though three of them have vanished. Most of their boundaries have changed in the intervening centuries.
Before the Province of New York was granted county subdivisions and a greater royal presence in 1683, the early ducal colony consisted of York Shire, as well as Albany and Ulster, after the three titles held by Prince James: Duke of York, Duke of Albany, Earl of Ulster. While these were basically renamed Dutch core settlements, they were quickly converted to English purposes, while the Dutch remained within the colony, as opposed to later practice of the Acadian Expulsion. Further Anglo-Dutch synthesis occurred when James enacted the Dominion of New England and later when William III of England took over through the Glorious Revolution.
See also
- Counties of England
- Counties of Scotland
- Counties of Wales
- Counties of the United Kingdom
- Gau
- Scirii
- The Shire in the Lord of the Rings
- Shire Horse
- Shire plc
References
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "Shire", accessed 15 October 2011.
- ^ Gareth Dean, Medieval York 2008:21.