The constitution of parliaments in England deduced from the time of King Edward the Second, illustrated by King Charles the Second in his Parliament summon'd the 18 of February 1660/1, and dissolved the 24 of January 1678/9 : with an appendix of its sessions / observed by Sr. John Pettus ... Knight.

SECT. V. Of a Viscount.

[Obs. I] WHat hath been said of a Duke or a Count, whilst their Titles were interchangeably us'd, may be also appli'd to a Viscount; for when Dukes and Counts increas'd in their number, there was a kind of necessity to take in others to their assistance, who afterwards by merit and the favour of their Prince, arrived to an Interest of their own, and therefore the word Vicecomes, or Viscount, may proper∣ly here intend a Companion, (for the word Comes doth as well signifie a Com∣panion or Associate, as a Count or Earl) and the addition of Vice (which signifies instead, or by course or turns (of which word Turn I shall speak more) did inti∣mate, thar when the Turn of this Comes came to Govern, he was for that time cal∣led Vicecomes, all other times Comes only, or, as I conceive, as the one was call'd Co∣mes, because he commanded a County, the other was called Vicecomes, from the Latin word Vicus, because he commanded a Vil∣lage, Street, or Structure, or some lesser Command than that of a County.

2. The dignal Title of Vicecomes is also ancienter in foreign parts, than in England, and is the same with Ʋidame, or Vicedo∣minus (which are properly the foreign Titles of a Substitute to a Bishop) but as we take the Title in an officiall sence, it signifies the King's Deputy or Sheriff in every County, and so is as ancient as the Saxons, who made Comes to signifie Earl, and Vicecomes, or Viscount, to signifie the Office of Shereeve, or Sheriff, for we had the words Earl and Sheriff from the Saxons, and the Count and Viscount from the Ro∣mans, Comes and Vicecomes: and probably for the same reason, that Marquess was in∣terpos'd to Duke and Earl in Richard the Second's time, so it was thought fit in Henry the Sixth's time (though some say in Hen∣ry the Fifth's time) to interpose the Title of Viscount to Comes, or Earl, and the Noble Baron, there having been the like promis∣cuous use of the Titles of Comes, or Earl, and Baron, as had been of Duke and Comes, and thereupon I conceive John d'Beau∣mont was Created the first Viscount of this interposing Dignity, it being, as Mr. Camb∣den saith, an old Name of Office, but a new Name of Dignity, or a Vicecomes, or Sheriff, turn'd from an annual Office into a Dignity hereditary.

3. Yet this Office of Vicecomes, or She∣reeve, or Sheriff, was, and still is an Of∣fice of dignity; only the difference is, that the Vicecomes dignified, (as I said by Hen. the 6th. is a Parliamentary and No∣bilitated Dignity and Place, (both in their Patent of Creation, and in the Act of Pre∣cedency) fixt between Earl and Baron, &c. made Hereditary, but the other Viscount∣ship or Sherifdom is Official and Annual and not Hereditary, and hath no place in the Lords House; and particularly ex∣cepted to be chosen into the House of Com∣mons, by the Writs of Elections, (as will be shewn) and the reason is, because the Official Viscountship is in the King, who gives only an annual Deputation to the Person who executes that Office in such County, of which he is made Vicecomes or Deputy to the King, and so is not the Noble Viscount, (who cannot be made Sheriff or return'd of a Jury) but hath his constant Writ of Summons to every Parliament, (as will be shewn;)

4. Seven Viscounts Summon'd by Writ 18. Feb. 1661. and One Viscount Sum∣mon'd by Writ 20th. Ap. 1661.

And now I come to the Barons, the last Degree of the Nobility, but anciently the First or Second.