COUNTY. One of the civil divisions of a country for judicial and political purposes. 1 Bla. Corn. 113. Etymologically, it denotes that portion of the country under the im mediate government of a count. 1 Bla. Cora. 116.
The states are generally divided into coun ties. Counties are, in many of the states, divided into townships or towns. In the New England states, however, towns are the basis of all civil divisions, and the counties are rather to be considered as aggregates of towns, so far as their origin is concerned. In Pennsylvania, the state was originally di vided into three counties by William Penn. See Proud's Hist. Pa. 234; 2 id. 258.
In some states, a county is considered a corporation; Coles v. Madison County, Breese (Ill.) 154, 12 Am. Dec. 161; in others, it is held a quasi corporation; Inhabitants of County of Hampshire v. Franklin County, 16 Mass. 87; ti merson v. Washington Coun ty, 9 Greenl. (Me.) 88; Jackson v. Cory, 8 Johns. (N. Y.) 385; Boykin's Devisees v. Smith, 3 Munf. (Va.) 102. In regard to the division of counties, see Drake's Adm'r v. Vaughan, 6 J. J. Marsh. (Ky.) 147; State T. Jones, 9 N. J. L. 357, 17 Am. Dec. 483; Gary v. People, 9 Cow. (N. Y.) 640; Walsh v. Com., 89 Pa. 419, 33 Am. Rep. 771; Blount County v. Loudon County, 8 Baxt. (Tenn.) 74; Stuart v. Bair, id. 141 ; Newton v. Com
missioners, 100 U. S. 548, 25 L. Ed. 710; Eagle v. Beard, 33 Ark. 497; Cocke v. Gooch, 5 Heisk. (Tenn.) 294. A county may be re quired by act of legislature to build a public work outside the county' limits, where it is of special interest to the people of the coun ty; Carter v. Bridge, 104 Mass. 236; Talbot County Com'rs v. County Com'rs, 50 Md. 245. A state has a greater latitude of control over a county, than over a town or city, as the latter had a two-fold character—public, as an agency of the state, and private, as affecting matter of local concern; State v. Board of Com'rs, 170 Ind. 595, 85 N. E. 518. The terms "county" and "people of the county" are, or may be, used interchange ably; St. Louis County Court v. Griswold, 58 Mo. 175.
In the English law, this word signifies the same as slare,—county being derived from the French, and shire from the Saxon. Both these words signify a circuit or portion of the realm into which the whole land is di vided, for the better government thereof and the more easy administration of justice. There is no part of England that is not with in some county ; and the shirereeve (sheriff) was the governor of the province, under the comes, earl, or count.