A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for local government in England, Ireland and Wales.
Counties corporate were created during the Middle Ages, and were effectively small self-governing counties. They usually covered towns or cities which were deemed to be important enough to be independent from their counties and a county corporate could also be known as a county of itself.
While they were administratively distinct counties, with their own sheriffs and lieutenancies, most of the counties corporate remained part of the "county at large" for purposes such as the county assize courts. From the 17th century the separate jurisdictions of the counties corporate were increasingly merged with that of the surrounding county, so that by the late 19th century the title was mostly a ceremonial one.
Read more about County Corporate: History
Famous quotes containing the words county and/or corporate:
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“The generation of women before us who rushed to fill the corporate ranks altered our expectations of what working motherhood could be, tempered our ambition, and exploded the supermom myth many of us held dear.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)