Sheriff of Berwick

The Sheriff of Berwick was historically a royal official, who was responsible for enforcing justice in Berwickshire, Scotland. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the hereditary sheriffs were replaced by salaried sheriff-deputes, qualified advocates who were members of the Scottish Bar.

The sheriffdom was merged into the new sheriffdom of Haddington and Berwick in 1856.

Sheriffs of Berwick

 * Norman (1147)
 * Walter de Lindsay (1206)
 * Robert of Upsettlington (1220)
 * Ingram de Balliol (1228)
 * William de Lindsay (c. 1230)
 * David de Graham (1236)
 * John Maxwell
 * David de Graham (1264)
 * Hugh de Berkeley (1266)
 * John de Soulis (1288)
 * William Lindsay
 * Richard Fraser
 * Osbert of Spaldington (1295-1297)
 * John de Burdon (1300-1302)
 * Edmund Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1312)
 * John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter (1325)
 * Hugh Gifford (1329)
 * Robert Lauder (1330)
 * John I Preston, Baron of Craigmillar (c. 1420)
 * Patrick Nesbit (1437)
 * Walter de Halyburton
 * John de Halyburton (1447)
 * Alexander Hume (1447) - Deputy
 * Patrick Hepburn of Dunsyre (1450)
 * Adam Hepburn, Master of Hailes (1470)
 * Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell (1480)
 * Adam Hepburn, 2nd Earl of Bothwell (1511)
 * Patrick Hume, Earl of Marchmont (1690–1710)
 * Alexander, Earl of Home (1710-1715)
 * Patrick Hume, Earl of Marchmont (1715-1724)
 * Alexander, Earl of Marchmont (1724-)


 * Sheriffs-Depute
 * George Ker, 1755– (first Sheriff-depute of modern era)
 * David Hume of Ninewells, 1783–1793 (Sheriff of Linlithgow, 1793–1811)
 * John Swinton, 1793–1809
 * David Douglas of Reston, 1809–1813
 * William Boswell, <1819–1840
 * Robert Bell 1841–1856 (Sheriff of Haddington and Berwick, 1856)


 * For sheriffs after 1856 see Sheriff of Haddington and Berwick