History  

• An Historical Perspective:  700 A. D. - 1913
• The Birth of Seminole County
• The Act Creating Seminole County
• Origin of the Term COP

The Beginning: An Historical Perspective 700 A. D. - 1913

More than twelve hundred years ago, the country we now call England was inhabited by small groups of Anglo-Saxons who lived in rural communities called tuns. (Tun is the source of the modern English word town.) These Anglo-Saxons were often at war. Sometime before the year 700, they decided to systematize their methods of fighting by forming a system of local self-government based on groups of ten.

Each tun was divided into groups of ten families called tithings. The elected leader of each tithing was called a tithingman. The tithings were also arranged in tens. Each group of ten tithings (or a hundred families) elected its own chief. The Anglo-Saxon word for chief was gerefa, which was later shortened to reeve.

During the next two centuries, a number of changes occurred in this system of tithings and hundreds. A new unit of government, the shire, was formed when groups of hundreds banded together. The shire was the forerunner of the modern county. Just as each hundred was led by a reeve (chief), each shire had a reeve as well. To distinguish the leader of a mere hundred, the more powerful official became known as a shire-reeve.

The word shire-reeve eventually became the modern English word sheriff. The sheriff - in early England, and metaphorically in present day America - is the keeper, or chief, of the county.

The sheriff, under King Alfred the Great, who assumed the throne in the year 871, was responsible for maintaining law and order within his own county. However, it remained the duty of every citizen to assist the sheriff in keeping the peace. If a criminal or escaped suspect was at large, it was the sheriff's responsibility to give the alarm--the hue and cry, as it was called. Any member of the community who heard the hue and cry was then legally responsible for helping to bring the criminal to justice. This principle of direct citizen participation survives today in the procedure known as posse comitatus.

Over the next few centuries, the Sheriff remained the leading law enforcement officer of the county. To be appointed Sheriff was considered a significant, if not costly honor. If the people of the county did not pay the full amount of their taxes and fines, the Sheriff had to make up the difference out of his own pocket.

When English settlers traveled to the New World, the office of the Sheriff traveled with them. The first American counties were established in Virginia in 1634, and records show that one of these counties elected a sheriff in 1651. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American Sheriffs were assigned a broad range of responsibilities by colonial and state legislatures. Some of their responsibilities, such as law enforcement and tax collection were carried over from the familiar rule of the English Sheriff. Other responsibilities such as overseeing jails and workhouses, were new.

Clearly, the Sheriff is the only viable officer remaining of the ancient offices, and his contemporary responsibility as conservator of the peace has been influenced greatly by modern society. As the crossbow gave way to the primitive flintlock the Sheriff is not unaccustomed to change. But now, perhaps more than ever before in history, law enforcement if faced with complex, moving, rapid changes in methodology, technology, and social attitudes. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in THE VALUE OF CONSTITUTIONS, "the Office of Sheriff is the most important of all the executive offices of the county." During colonial times, Sheriffs had ceremonial duties, such as announcing the coronation of English kings and queens. They served official papers, and when culprits were sentenced, it was their duty to carry out the punishment. Miscreants were whipped for "opprobrious language" and pilloried for perjury.

As Americans began to move westward, they took with them the concept of county jails and the office of Sheriff. The Sheriff was desperately needed to establish order in the lawless territories where power belonged to those with the fastest draw and the most accurate shot. Here it is said that sheriff's fell into two categories, the quick and the dead. During the heyday of the Wild West, Sheriffs became legendary figures and were credited for exploits into which fact and fiction were woven. Regardless, the fact remains that Sheriffs have played important roles throughout many centuries, and they are still making history in current law enforcement.

Like the division of government into counties, the position of Sheriff came indirectly to Florida from England, with Major General Andrew Jackson introducing the office as he took over the territory from Spain. An ordinance proclaimed in Pensacola on July 21, 1821, ordained, "there shall also be a sheriff appointed to each court, to execute the process thereof, whose services shall be compensated by the court to which he is appointed in like manner and as is provided by the clerk."

The pillory, a branding iron, a post for nailing ears, and the whip were the instruments for justice as Florida became a state in 1845. Nothing so illustrates the change in regard for life and human feelings during a century than the laws which Sheriffs enforced as the territory progressed into statehood. A gambler or vagrant might be punished " . . . by a fine nor exceeding 12 months, or by being sold for 12 months to the highest bidder, or by whipping not exceeding 39 stripes . . .." A review of the Acts of 1846 shows the following fees for Sheriffs: whipping a person under sentence of the court - 2 dollars; confining a prisoner under sentence of court - 3 dollars; and hanging a prisoner - 10 dollars. Additionally, a Sheriff might be allowed up to 10 dollars for erecting a gallows and up to 3 dollars for placing the stocks to embrace a person sentenced to stand in pillory - a target for the town's hecklers.

A subsequent fee promulgated by General Andrew Jackson, as first military governor, provided fees for Florida Sheriffs among which were: for serving a citation - $1.50; witness subpoena - $ .50; for keeping a prisoner - $ .25 per day; for whipping any person - $ .25; and for executing any person, $10.

Until statehood came, the county Sheriffs shared authority for law enforcement with Marshals of the federal courts of the territory. But in 1845, the first legislature of Florida enacted the following law: "A Sheriff shall be selected on the first Monday of May next, in each and every county of this state, by the qualified electors of each county; said Sheriff to hold this office for the term of 2 years, from the day he is elected and until his successor is qualified."

Florida Sheriffs have been constitutional officers since 1865. The term of Office of the Sheriff was two years until 1868 and since then has been four years. Prior to 1921 there was no limitation on the total compensation of the Sheriff, but, thereafter, a ceiling of $7,500 was established. Until 1868, the Sheriff was subject to removal by impeachment. From 1868 to 1887 he was subject to suspension by the governor with the consent of the senate, and since 1887 he was subject to suspension by the governor and removal by the senate. Vacancies in the office of the Sheriff were filled until 1868 by appointment by the governor.

In Florida there are 67 counties. Each county has a Sheriff as the chief law enforcement official who is elected by the mandate of the people. The Sheriff is solely responsible to the Governor for the execution of all state laws within his respective county and is the guardian of public peace, safety and security. He enforces the criminal laws, attends to the courts, and preserves order. He serves processes by which people are brought into court and is the keeper of all persons imprisoned in the county jail. He performs other duties as prescribed by the legislature. He maintains law and order and must see that due process of law, as guaranteed by the Constitution, is complied with before any person is deprived of life, liberty, or property.

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The Birth of Seminole County

Although Sanford and Orlando grew up together, rivalry between businessmen and politicians in the two towns started early on. In 1870, General Henry Shelton Sanford purchased 22 miles of land and started his namesake city, which soon grew large enough to absorb old Mellonville on the shores of Lake Monroe. In 1875, Sanford traveled to Orlando to try and persuade Orange County Commissioners to shift the seat to his city with the offer of free land for a courthouse. But Sanford was outbid by Orlando cattleman Jacob Summerlin who offered to lend the county $10,000 to build its courthouse on the condition that it remain in Orlando. The commissioners accepted Summerlin's offer, and repaid the load in five years.

Sanford and other communities in north Orange County had established separate identities long before division became a reality. Orlando and Sanford also grew apart in the ways their economy developed. A railroad linked both towns, but there were no paved roads between them until the 1920s - contributing to the sense of distance. Sanford developed a truck farming economy and relied heavily on shipping. Orlando's economy centered more on citrus, commerce, and tourism. Sanford's residents complained about a 22 mile trip to buy a $2 license.

It was most likely bitter politics that ultimately brought about the Seminole "session." A bitter Sheriff's race, which after three ballots, saw the defeat of Sanford's Charley Hand, was won by an Orlando man. On November 17, 1912, the Commercial Club of Sanford met and the next day's headlines read "County Division Now." Between November and April 1913, when the legislature met, there was plenty of debate for division in Sanford and against it in Orlando. But it wasn't seriously debated in Tallahassee. On April 22 the bill passed the House 59 to 5.

In trying to decide what to call the new county, it started out as Sanford County, then Celery County, and ended up as Seminole County.

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The Act Creating Seminole County

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE CREATION OF SEMINOLE COUNTY, IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, AND FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT THEREOF.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida, Section I. That the County of Seminole, be, and the same is hereby created and established. Such county shall comprise and include all that territory of the County of Orange as heretofore existing, described as follows:

Commencing in the Center of the Wekiva River and in the Center of the St. Johns River, at a place where the Wekiva River discharges its waters into the St. Johns River, running thence through the middle of the Wekiva River in a Southerly direction to the Northwest corner of Section 19, Township 20 South of Range 29 East, thence South along the Range Line, between Ranges 28 and 29 East, to the Southwest Corner of Section 19, Township 21 South of Range 29 East, thence East to the Southeast corner of Section 20, Township 21 South of Range 30 East, thence south to the township line between Townships 21 and 22 South of Range 30 East. Thence East along said Township line to the middle of the St., Johns River. Thence following the middle of the St. Johns River to and through Lake Harney, into the St. Johns River, thence following the middle of the St. John's River to and through Lake Monroe, into the St. Johns River, thence following the middle of the St. Johns River to its juncture with the Wekiva River at the point of beginning.

Approved April 25, 1913.

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Origin of the term COP

Several popular etymologies, all certainly false, exist for this word meaning policeman. One says that it is an acronym standing for Constable On Patrol. Another says that the first policemen in London (or another city--it varies in the telling) had copper buttons on their uniforms. Yet another says that it was not buttons, but a copper badge that gave them the name.

While the ultimate origin is disputed, most authorities agree that it is a shortening of copper. Cop was first used in 1859 and copper predates it from 1846. Copper, as slang for policeman, derives from the verb to cop, which dates from 1704 and means to catch. The OED2 notes that an 1864 newspaper stated that people would exhibit a copper coin as they passed a policeman, in effect calling them copper. This may have been the beginning of the confusion with the metal copper.

The ultimate origin of the verb copper is disputed. It either derives from the Dutch kapen, meaning to take. This in turn comes from the Old Frisian capia, meaning to buy. The other choice is that it derives from the French caper, to take, and ultimately from the Latin capere.

"Word and Phrase Origins" are copyrighted by David Wilton

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