Forms: 4–5 counte, cunte, 5 cownty, 6–7 countie, -ye, 6– county. [a. AF. counté (in Laws of Wm. I.), later counte(e = OF. cunté, conté, later comté = Pr. comtat, It. comitato:—L. comitātus, f. comes, comit-em COUNT: cf. ducātus DUCHY from dux, ducem DUKE. The L. word had primarily the sense of ‘a body of companions, a companionship,’ subsequently ‘an escort or retinue’; when comes became a designation of a state officer, comitātus followed as the name of his office, and when the conte became a territorial lord, the conté became his territory—the stage at which the word entered English.]
† 1. The domain or territory of a count. Obs.
Common in AF., but in Eng. perh. only used in reference to the territory of a French or other foreign count. (The first quot. is fig., but seems to belong here.)
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 85. Þe Erldome of enuye and Wratthe togideres … Þe counte [v.r. countee; A text kingdom] of coueitise, and alle þe costes aboute.
1530. Palsgr., 209/2. Countie, an erledome, conté.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 50. The Dutchy of Aniou, and the County of Main.
1611. Cotgr., Droicts Royaux, the Royall Prerogatiue … to create of a Chastellenie, a Baronie, or Countie; and of this a Marquisdome, or Duchie.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 399. When he began to prosecute his Victory into the Bounds of the County, or Earldom, the Switzers interceded him to respite his Fury.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 272/1. Boulogne had … been erected into a county.
2. One of the territorial divisions of Great Britain and Ireland, formed as the result of a variety of historical events, and serving as the most important divisional unit in the country for administrative, judicial and political purposes.
The AF. counté and the med.L. comitatus were used to render the English SHIRE, the division of the country administered originally by an eorl and later by a sheriff (AF. viscounte); whence counte was gradually adopted in English (app. scarcely before the 15th c.), as an alternative name for the shire, and in course of time was applied to the similar divisions made in Wales and in Ireland, as well as to the shires of Scotland, and also extended to those separate portions of the realm which never were shires, as the duchy of Cornwall, Orkney and Shetland, etc.
b. The status of county was also given at various times to a number of cities and towns in England and Ireland, with a certain portion of adjoining territory; these were separated from the shire in which they were situated, and made counties by themselves; more exactly called corporate counties or counties corporate: see CORPORATE ppl. a. 4.
c. By the Local Government Act of 1888 the word has received a further modification of meaning; besides the historical counties, and counties corporate, boroughs of above 50,000 inhabitants are made administrative counties under the name of county boroughs, which are administratively, but not politically or judicially, independent of the counties in which they are situated.
[1292. Britton, I. xiv. § 3. A nos viscountes de cel counté et des countez joingnauntz.]
1411. in E. E. Wills, 20. Þe londes and þe rentes in the Counte of deuon-shire.
1423. Rolls of Parl. (2 Hen. VI), IV. 198. At Oghtryn in the Countee of Kildare. Ibid., IV. 258. That Justies of Pees in every Counte of England shuld examen all manere of servauntz in her Countees.
1482. in Surtees Misc. (1890), 40. Dwellyng wtin the cunte of Cumbreland.
1535–6. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 24 § 2. In all Shires, Counties, Counties Palantyne and other Places of this Realme. Ibid., c. 26 § 2. The residue of the said Lordeshippes Marchars within the said Countrey or Dominion of Wales shall be severed and devyded into certayne particular Counties or Shires, that is to say, the Countie or Shire of Monmouth, [etc.].
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 64. I am Robert Shallow (Sir) a poore Esquire of this Countie, and one of the Kings Iustices of the Peace.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng., I. ii. 49. Alfred … divided all England into Counties.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 408/1. The word shire is in most cases equivalent to county, a name often substituted for it in Great Britain, and always in Ireland.
1860. Freeman, Hist. Ess. (1872), I. ii. 46. Of the Old-English kingdoms several still survive as counties.
1884. Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/4. The extension of the household franchise to the counties.
b. 1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 13. The county of the City of Yorke … the county of the town of Kingston vpon Hull, The county Palatine of Lancaster, the county of Salop, Leicester, Hereford and Lincolne.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon (1810), 107. King Henry … did … make this city [Exeter], with its suburbs, a County … by means whereof they have justices of the peace, a sheriff, constables, and all other officers that pertained to a county.
1672. Cowel’s Interpr., s.v. County, Besides these Counties … there be likewise Counties Corporate … these be certain Cities, or ancient Boroughs of the Land, upon which the Princes of our Nation have thought good to bestow such extraordinary Liberties.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 115. There are also counties corporate; which are certain cities and towns, some with more, some with less territory annexed to them.
1837. Penny Cycl., VIII. 18/1. Cork, a city, the assize town of the county of Cork … situated in the county of the city of Cork…. The county of the city consists of the city, suburbs, and liberties.
1859. Polit. Perils, 26. There are in England nineteen Counties-Corporate, that is—cities or boroughs which are counties of themselves.
1892. Daily News, 29 March, 2/5. The inquiry was simply limited to the ‘County of London,’ which means the metropolis with a twenty-miles radius.
c. 1888. Local Govt. Act, in Whitaker’s Alm. (1889), 584. The following large boroughs, each with a population of not less than 50,000, or being, before the passing of the present Act, a county of itself, will be separate administrative counties, and will be known as county boroughs. Ibid., 586/2. The clerk of the peace for the county of London must be a separate officer from the clerk of the council for the administrative county of London.
3. Introduced into most of the British colonies as the name of the administrative divisions; in the United States, the political and administrative division next below the State, into which all the States of the Union are divided, except South Carolina, of which the divisions are called ‘districts,’ and Louisiana, which is divided into ‘parishes.’
For the relations between the county and the town or township in U.S., see Bryce, Amer. Commw., ch. xlviii.
1683. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 61. Governr of Pensilvania and Countys annexed.
1760. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Col. Mass., i. 117. The colony … was divided … into four counties or shires.
1809. Kendall, Trav., I. x. 113. The society, town and county, in these countries, are new modifications of the parish, hundred and shire.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 217/1. These districts [Lower Canada] are sub-divided as under: Counties, Seigniories, Fiefs, Townships. Ibid., VI. 311/2. (South Carolina) The number of districts, which name is here substituted for that of counties, is 29. Ibid. (1839), XIII. 75/2. Jamaica is politically divided into three counties, Surrey, Middlesex, and Cornwall.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1889), I. xlviii. 568. The county … is still in the main a judicial district in and for which civil and criminal courts are held.
4. Eng. Hist. The periodical meeting, convention or court held under the sheriff for the transaction of the business of the shire; the shire-moot, shire-court, COUNTY-COURT 1; also a particular session of this court.
This was perhaps the earliest sense in which counté was used in English. It was a regular use of Anglo-Lat. comitatus and AF. counté; app. no such phrases as curia de comitatu, or court du counté, being in use. Business was done in pleno comitatu, en plein counté, a man was not outlawed until he had been ‘exacted’ in quatuor comitatibus; he must be exacted de comitatu in comitatum, etc.
[1217. 2nd Charter Hen. III. (2nd Re-issue of Magna Carta), § 42. Nullus comitatus de cetero teneatur nisi de mense in mensem [transl. Pulton, c. xxxv, No Countie from henceforth shall be holden, but from moneth to moneth].
[1292. Britton, VI. iv. § 3. Purra il weyver la court soen seignur … et pleder en Counté. Ibid., VI. iv. § 6. Et moustrer le bref en plein Counté.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 133. Contek in countes alle was peysed wele, Baret of baron feez forgyuen ilkadele. Ibid., 309. To com to þe parlement, For erles & barons at London suld it be, Four knyghtes be somons chosen in ilk counte.
1444. Petition, in Rolls of Parl., V. 110. That the shirref of every shire … in the next counte holden in thaire shires … make an opyn proclamation … Of the suitors of the seid countees than being in the pleine counte.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 15 Preamb., Shirefs Undershirefs Shire Clerkis or any other officers holding or keping the Countes in the name of a Shiref.
1535–6. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 26 § 14. The Shire Courte or Countie of and for the said Shire or Countie of Brekenok shalbe holden and kepte in the said Towne of Brekenok.
1549. Act 2–3 Edw. VI., c. 25. Shires which haue and vse their Counties to bee holden euery six weekes.
[1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 776–7. At the next County (i. e. County-Court) which should be holden.]
5. The people of a county collectively as a part of the nation, or as a body of ratepayers. b. The county gentry or county families collectively.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 17/1. The counties throughout the kingdom were so incensed … that they refused to suffer the soldiers to be billeted upon them.
1886. Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentl., xxxi. (Leisure Ho., 515). ‘I am sure,’ said Mrs. Rochford, ‘the county will like far better to see you there than Mrs. Russell Penton.’
Mod. The expenses are to be borne by the county. The new bridge has been built at the joint expense of the County, the Borough, and the Thames Commissioners.
ǁ 6. Used to render L. conventus, a Roman provincial judicial assembly, and hence an administrative division of a province for the administration of justice.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 52. Within the countie or iurisdiction of Corduba. Ibid., 88. The whole prouince [of Spain] is diuided into three counties [in conventus tris] or iudiciall courts of Assises.
7. County palatine: orig. the dominion of a count or earl palatine, a palatinate; in England, a county of which the earl or lord had originally royal privileges, with the right of exclusive civil criminal jurisdiction. See PALATINE.
The counties palatine are now Cheshire and Lancashire; formerly Durham, Pembroke, Hexhamshire, and Ely were of the number.
1491. Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 24 Preamb., Where the Countie of Lancastre is and of long tyme hath byn a Countie Palyntyne.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VII., c. 43. It is now used to keepe Sessions in the said County Palatine of Chester, as it is used in other Shires of England.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 106. There were five county palatines erected in Leinster.
1641. Termes de la Ley, s.v., Of these Counties there are foure more remarkeable than others, called County Palatines, as the County Palatine of Lancaster, of Chester, of Durham, and of Ely, An. 5. El. c. 23, there was also the County Palatine of Hexam, An. 33. H. 8. c. 10.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xxix. (1739), 45. Of the same sort of Franchises were these which are called County-Palatines, which were certain parcels of the Kingdom assigned to some particular person, and their Successors, with Royal power therein to execute all Laws established, in nature of a Province holden of the Imperial Crown.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xviii. 351. The franchise of a county palatine gave a right of exclusive civil and criminal jurisdiction.
1864. I. Taylor, Words & Places, 474. The counties palatine of Chester, Durham, and Lancaster are so called on account of the delegated royalty—the ‘jura regalia’—formerly exercised by the Earls of Chester, the Bishops of Durham, and the Dukes of Lancaster.
8. attrib. and Comb. Of a (or the) county; belonging or pertaining to a county; concerned in the administration of the affairs of a county, as county alderman, clerk, councillor, treasurer; for the use of the whole county and administered by its authority, as county asylum, bridge, gaol, road; of or belonging to a county in its parliamentary aspect (which, from the important differences in the qualifications of electors and representatives, formerly presented distinctive features from that of a borough), as county constituency, election, elector, franchise, member, vote, etc.
1656. W. Sheppard (title), Survey of the County Judicatories.
1788. (title) County Management, with an Argument in favour of Pocket Sheriffs.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. Bridge, Quarter sessions may … alter the situation of county bridges.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 409/1. (House of Commons), England and Wales: The number of county constituencies before the Reform Act was 52. Ibid. The number of county members is raised from 94 to 159.
a. 1862. Buckle, Civiliz. (1869), III. iii. 181. In 1749 there was established, at Aberdeen, the first county bank ever seen in Scotland.
1868. G. O. Trevelyan, in Parlt. (Daily News, 10 Dec., 1884, 3/3). As regards the County Franchise, I am clearly of opinion that it should be identified with the Borough Franchise.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 50. [They] would maintain churches on the same principle on which they maintain the county constabulary.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 11. The Ordnance Survey … issues county maps on a scale of six inches to a mile.
1883. Sir J. F. Stephen, Hist. Crim. Law, I. vii. 200. In 1856, after an experience of 17 years … an Act … made compulsory the establishment of county police in all parts of England.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1889), I. xlviii. 565. The County system of the South and the Town system of the North-east. Ibid., xlix. 588. There are in some States county high schools and (in most) county boards of education.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 April, 4/1. There are fifteen towns and cities which at present enjoy the county status, from which it is to be taken by Mr. Ritchie’s bills.
1888. Local Govt. Act (in Whitaker’s Alm., 1889, 585). [In] the administrative County of London … the county aldermen will not exceed (in number) one-sixth of the county councillors.
b. Special combs.: county ball, a subscription ball held in the county town and attended by the county gentry; county borough (see 2 c above); county commissioner, (a) a justice of the peace on the commission of a county; (b) in U.S., an elected administrative officer in many counties in the United States; hence Board or Court of county commissioners; county crop (slang), the county gaol ‘crop,’ or style in which a prisoner’s hair is cut, prison-crop; hence county-cropped; † county day, a day on which the county court sits (see 4 above); county family, a family belonging to the nobility or gentry, having estates and an ancestral seat in the county; county hall, a building for the conduct of the business of a county, in which the county quarter sessions, assizes, etc., are held; a shire hall; county house (U.S.), a county poor-house or ‘union’; county meeting, a meeting called by the High Sheriff of a county and held to be representative of the county; county rate, a general rate levied upon a whole county, for the maintenance of bridges, roads, asylums, etc.; county seat (U.S.), the place that is the seat of government of a county; county sessions, the quarter sessions for a county; † county stock, the fund for defraying county expenses; county town, the chief town of a county, formerly called shire-town.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 20. From Lodge, and Court, and House, and Hall, Are hurrying to the *County Ball.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. i. An expedition to the county ball, or the yeomanry review.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. County rates, Justices of liberties and franchises not subject to the *County commissioners.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1889), I. xlviii. 569. The chief administrative officers are the county commissioners, of whom there are three in Massachusetts.
1853. Punch, XXIV. 147/1. My reward is the *County crop and the treadmill.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., s.v., ‘You’ve got the county-crop’: said in ridicule.
1867. J. Greenwood, Unsent. Journ., xxv. 199. A slangy, low-browed, bull-necked, *county-cropped … crew.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 43. Preamb., One yere viij shires or *countie daies and another yere ix shires or countie daies.
1627. Sir R. Cotton, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., I. 470. That a care be had that there may be a County-day after the Sheriff hath received the Writ, before the time of sitting.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Aristocr., Wks. (Bohn), II. 79. The aristocracy are marked by their predilection for country life. They are called the *county families.
1884. Symonds, Shaks. Predecessors, xi. § v. 451. Mistress Alice…, the Lady Macbeth of county family connections.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4392/4. The Commissioners … intend to meet … at the *County-Hall of the County of Nottingham.
1889. Whitaker’s Almanack, 582. Shire and county halls, assize courts, judges’ lodgings, and other official buildings.
1888. Philadelphia Press, 29 Jan. (Farmer). An exceedingly singular character has just died in the Hillsdale *county house.
1797. J. Pearson (title), The Rights of Inhabitants at large to attend *County Meetings asserted.
1817. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., 15 Feb., 208. Saying that the meeting was not a County Meeting, because it was not called by the Sheriff!
1807–8. Syd. Smith, Plymley’s Lett., Wks. 1859, II. 70/1. The grand juries in Ireland … have a power of making a *county rate … for roads, bridges, and other objects of general accommodation.
1888. in Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1889), I. xlviii. 575. The county government is established at some place designated by the voters, and called the *‘county seat.’
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 517, ¶ 1. The old Man caught a Cold at the *County-Sessions.
1651. W. Sheppard, Eng. Balme (1657), 28. Be punished with a good Fine, to the use of a *County-stock.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 132, ¶ 1. I arrived at the *County Town at twilight.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 338. It was seldom that a country gentleman went up with his family to London. The county town was his metropolis.
