Shire Reeve : The Exchequer

From Richard FitzNeal, Lord Chancellor to Henry II, Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer, c.1180

"...just as, in a game of chess, there are certain grades of combatants and they proceed or stand still by certain laws or limitations, some presiding and others advancing: so, in this, some preside, some assist by reason of their office, and no one is free to exceed the fixed laws; as will be manifest from what is to follow. Moreover, as in chess the battle is fought between kings, so in this it is chiefly between two that the conflict takes place and the war is waged, the treasurer, namely, and the sheriff who sits there to render account; the others sitting by as judges, to see and to judge."

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/excheq.asp