HEÁHGERÉFA.—In general the word coupled with geréfa enables us to judge of the particular functions of the officer; but this is not the case with the heáhgeréfa or _high reeve_, a name of very indefinite signification, though not very rare occurrence. It is obvious that it really denotes only a reeve of high rank, I believe always a royal officer; but it is impossible to say whether the rank is personal or official; whether there existed an office called the heáhgeréfscipe (highreevedom) having certain duties; or whether the circumstance of the shire- or other reeve being a nobleman in the king’s confidence gave to him this exceptional title. I am inclined to believe that they are exceptional, and perhaps in some degree similar to the Missi of the Franks,—officers dispatched under occasional commissions to perform functions of supervision, hold courts of appeal, and discharge other duties, as the necessity of the case demanded; but that they are not established officers found in all the districts of the kingdom, and forming a settled part of the machinery of government. In this particular sense, our judges going down upon their several circuits, under a commission of jail delivery, are the heáhgeréfan of our day. We are told in the Saxon Chronicle that in the year 778, Æðelbald and Heardberht of Northumberland slew three heáhgeréfan, namely Ealhwulf the son of Bosa, Cynewulf and Ecga: and the immediate consequence of this appears to have been the expulsion of Æðelred, and the succession of Ælfwold to the throne of Northumberland. These high-reeves were therefore probably military officers of Æðelred, and Simeon of Durham, in recording the events of the same year calls them dukes, _duces_. Again, in 780, Simeon mentions Osbald and Æðelheard as dukes, but the Chronicle calls them heáhgeréfan.[366] ----- Footnote 366: The instances cited are Northumbrian, and it is remarkable that the chapter on Wergylds, § 4, reckons the heáhgeréfa as a separate rank, having a high wergyld, but inferior to that of the ealdorman. I am much inclined to think that these were sheriffs. ----- In a preceding chapter I have shown that the _dux_ is properly equivalent to the ealdorman, but this can hardly have been the case with the heáhgeréfa. Again, in 1001, the Chronicle mentions three high-reeves, Æðelweard, Leófwine and Kola, and apparently draws a distinction by immediately naming Eádsige, the king’s reeve, not his high-reeve. In 1002 the Chronicle again mentions Æfíc, a high-reeve, who though a great favourite of the king, certainly never attained the rank of a duke or ealdorman, or, as far as we know, ever performed any public administrative functions. He was a minion of Æðelred’s, but not an officer of the Anglosaxon state.