During the
Plantation of Ulster, the
London livery companies were made responsible for the area that became County Londonderry based on the earlier
County Coleraine. A single 1613 charter established Londonderry city and county and
the Irish Society as the livery companies' body for overseeing the plantation. The charter did not make the city a separate
county corporate from the county-at-large, but did refer to the county as "the City and County of Londonderry" and gave the common council of
the city corporation the privilege of electing two sheriffs annually for the county. Although the charter required the sheriffs to reside in the city or its liberties, occasionally the corporation included one of the
rural gentry among the sheriffs in a vain attempt to lessen their resentment against this privilege. The
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 separated "the City and County of Londonderry" into the
county borough of Londonderry (comprising the city) and the administrative county of Londonderry (the remainder), with separate sheriffs for each. ==Sheriffs of the City and County of Londonderry==