High Sheriff of County Galway his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in a county. In Galway the office of High Sheriff was established when Connacht was shired around 1569 and ceased to exist with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. High Sheriff of County Galway The High Sheriff of County Galway was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Galway. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicial importance, he had ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. The first (High)
Siege of Galway Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde, who was nominally the supreme commander of the Irish Catholic forces, tried to assemble an army at Jamestown County Leitrim to relieve Galway, but few of the demoralised Irish force around the country responded to his order. In March, a conference of Irish officers in Galway, including Clanricarde, decided to begin negotiations for terms of surrender. Thomas Preston, the military governor of Galway, eventually agreed to surrender the city on 12 May 1652. His position had become impossible due to food shortages and an outbreak of bubonic plague in Galway. Coote agreed to let Preston