The High Sheriff of County Londonderry is Queen Elizabeth II's judicial representative in County Londonderry. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the ruling monarch, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicial importance, he has ceremonial and administrative functions and executes High Court Writs.
The first (High) Shrivalties were established before the Norman Conquest in 1066 and date back to Saxon times. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. Despite however that the office retains his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in a county.
While the office of High Sheriff is present in the counties of Northern Ireland, it ceased to exist in those Irish counties which formed the Irish Free State in 1922.
1696: Robert Harvey of Londonderry1780: Mossom Boyd (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1817: James Major and Richard Harvey (also Sheriffs of City of Londonderry)1818: John Thompson and Richard Babington (also Sheriffs of City of Londonderry)1819: Thomas Kennedy (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1821: Joshua Gillespie and Marcus Gage (also Sheriffs of City of Londonderry)1828: William Lenox-Conyngham (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1829:1836: Archibald McCorkell of Glengalliagh (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1842: Henry Richardson1846: Henry Hervey Bruce1846: John Barré Beresford, of Learmount1848: John Stephenson of Fort William, Tobermore (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1849: James Johnston Clark (also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1850: Robert Peel Dawson1854: Robert Leslie Ogilby of Ardnargle1857: William Edward Scott of Willsboro 1858: Samuel Maxwell Alexander of Newtownlimavady(also Sheriff of City of Londonderry)1859: William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham of Springhill House1860: James Thomas Macky of Castlefin1861: Rowley Miller of Moneymore1862: John Adams of Ballydevitt1863: George Skipton1866: Conolly Thomas McCausland of Drenagh 1867: James R. Montgomery 1868: Henry Kyle of Laurel Hill1869: Sir John Hill, 4th Baronet, of St. Colombs1870: Robert Jackson Alexander1871:1873: Alexander Shuldham of Flowerfield 1875: James Jackson Clark of Largantogher 1877: Robert Lyon Moore1878: Bartholomew McCorkell of Richmond 1880: George Cather of Carrickhugh, Limavady1882: Adolphus John Spencer Churchill Chichester1883:1886: Andrew Alexander Watt of Thorn Hill 1887: Robert Alexander Ogilby of Pellipar, Dungiven 1888: Conolly William Lecky Browne-Lecky of Derry 1889:1895: John Cooke 1898: John Arthur Wellesley O'Niell Torrens of Somerset, Co Londonderry