Hello everyone,
I am currently translating (from French to English) a story that takes place in Canada between 1896 and 1904-5. The original text has people addressing local lawmen as Sheriffs. However, I'm worried this might be an 'americanism'...
As the main character is a Mountie, I'm aware of the North West Mounted Police, later RCMP. There's some fudging in the dates concerning its jurisdiction over the various territories, but there's little I can do about that. Everything takes place West of Lake Manitoba, and the NWMP appears to have jurisdiction - within this story. I'm also aware that there were municipal constabularies (in large cities) and Provincial Police Forces (although some of those were not yet established at the time).
But surely there would also have been local lawmen, elected or appointed, in smaller rural communities or small towns? The NWMP couldn't be everywhere, even where it had jurisdiction. Small towns were bound to have a copper or two... So, what were they called? Were they Sheriffs, as they were south of the border? Did they have sheriff's offices, or a police station...?
I'd appreciate any help you can provide, please!
"Sheriff" was definitely a term used during this period in Manitoba.
I'll point you towards a site that can help you immensely with this and other inquiries. Peel's Prairie Provinces is the University of Alberta's free database of scanned newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, research aids etc. relating to the history of the three prairie provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Their searchable full-text resources alone are staggeringly large.
In this case, a search for the term "sheriff" in Manitoba newspapers from the period brings up many articles discussing the doings of the local "sheriff". (To use this resource, just set the years, set the province to Manitoba, and search for your keyword.)
In Brandon, Manitoba, for instance, a Sheriff Clement is mentioned a lot. The Manitoba Historical Society has a short page on the man: Stephen Clement (1831-1901) who was appointed Sheriff of the Western Official District in 1882 and served till his death in 1901.
Now, "Sheriffs" in the Canadian context are not the same as the head of the local police. The police were the NWMP who had local detachments in towns. A Sheriff then and now is part of the judicial system. Manitoba Sheriffs were attached to a district court, and their duty was to enforce judgments, deliver prisoners to court, remove the guilty to prison, serve warrants etc. In this period of settlement on the wide plains, that could be a pretty demanding job, tracking down and transporting people across a vast territory.
I wish I could find a short summary of the sheriff's role and history in Manitoba, instead, you can get an idea of the range of duties from the newspaper stories in the Peel's Prairie Provinces database.
Historical fiction set in that era of Manitoba history sounds very cool. My own family roots are in the Red River Settlement, which drew me to this question. Good luck with the translation project!