The Custos rotulorum, Latin for "keeper of the rolls" within civil government, is the keeper of the English, Welsh and Northern Irish (and, prior to 1922, southern Irish) county records. The Custos is also the principal Justice of the Peace of the county and keeper of the records of the sessions of the local courts and, by virtue of those offices, the highest civil official in the county. The position is now largely ceremonial and generally undertaken by the Lord Lieutenant of the county.
