ependence, sheriffs were appointed by the governor on
recommendation of the county court. Almost from the beginning, too,
it appears to have been customary to appoint deputies or
"under-sheriffs". So it is not surprising to find that after 1661 it
was customary for the office of the sheriff to rotate annually among
the members of the court who, in turn, appointed their deputies
directly. But in the eighteenth century this system proved too
disruptive, and deputies were retained throughout several terms of
sheriff's appointments.[52]

From the beginning the sheriff and his deputies were compensated by
fees which they collected for a wide variety of duties. These ranged
from tasks connected with execution of the court's orders in criminal
cases, to enforcement of the law and administration of the jail. In
addition, the sheriff was due a fee from a master whose runaway
servant or employee he apprehended and returned, or for collecting
private debts or administering corporal punishment to servants for
their owners.[53]

Sheriffs also collected the levies which financed county government.
However, being subject to the pressures of their own circumstances,
there often was a tendency to give first priority to activities which
brought in their own fees. This led the General Assembly to require
that sheriffs collect public levies before they take any fees for
themselves, and to prescribe a number of other rules for improvement
of the conduct of their offices.[55]

The role of the sheriff in the tax collection process always was a
difficult one. The procedure for financing the county, initially, was
for the justices simply to compile lists of their expenses and the
freeholders of the county, compute how much was needed from each
freeholder to cover the cost of government, and direct the sheriff to
collect it. When the sheriff made his return to the court he was
entitled to deduct a percentage as his commission.[56] However,
revenue was often not collected, either because the job was farmed out
to others who defaulted, or the county was too poor, or its residents
were scattered and could not be found.[57] These problems ultimately
led the General Assembly to establish other officers whose exclusive
duties were the levying and collecting of revenue, but throughout the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the sheriff performed a central
role in the revenue process.

The sheriff was also the custodian of the county jail and its