There were courts for different geographical communities: shires, hundreds, and vills. The arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975 after being united under King Edgar. A shire was a large area of land, headed by an earl. A shire reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires and in the shire courts. This officer came to be selected by the king and earl of the shire to be a judicial and financial deputy of the earl and to execute the law. The office of sheriff, which was not hereditary, was also responsible for the administration of royal lands and royal accounts. The sheriff summoned the freemen holding land in the shire, four men selected by each community or township, and all public officers to meet twice a year at their "shiremotes". Actually only the great lords - the bishops, earls, and thegns - attended. The shire court was primarily concerned with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came to supervise several shires and the sheriff became head of the shire and assumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the shire fyrd. The shire court also heard cases which had been refused justice at the hundredmote and cases of keeping the peace of the shire. The hundred was a division of the shire, having come to refer to a geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly hundredmote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a lord's steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns, parish priest, and four representatives selected by each agrarian community or village - usually villeins. Here transfers of land were witnessed. The sheriff, or a reeve in his place, presided over minor local criminal and peace and order issues. When the jurisdiction was in the hands of a sheriff, it was called the sheriff's tourn. All residents were expected to attend this court. When the jurisdiction was in private hands, it was called a leet court. Leet jurisdiction derived from sac and soke jurisdiction. Sac and soc jurisdiction was possession of legal powers of execution and profits of justice held by a noble or institution over inhabitants and tenants of the estate, exercised through a private court.