The phrase ‘non est inventus’ (‘he is not found’) appears repeatedly in 14th century English legal records. Was this the sign of a tardy sheriff? A convenient way of saying the suspect had slipped away?
In practice, the formula simply meant that the accused could not be located when a writ to arrest him was returned. That might be because he had gone into hiding, moved on, or simply because the sheriff had dragged his feet, possibly due to workload or linked to high acquittal rates giving the task a sense of futility. It might also be because local people were unwilling to help officials find him.
Occasionally the records suggest something even more telling. When the Nottinghamshire sheriff Robert Ingram received orders to arrest members of the Coterel gang, he secretly warned them through their Nottingham spy, William Uston. By the time the arresting party arrived, the Coterels had vanished.
Non est inventus, then, was not always the whole story. Sometimes it reflected the realities sheriffs faced — or the choices they made — within the local communities they had to live and work in.