A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for the administration of justice in certain towns and cities in England, Wales, and Ireland. They arose when the monarch gave a borough corporation the right to appoint its own sheriffs, separating that borough from the jurisdiction of the sheriff of the county in which it lay; except in the case of Bristol which, by its Royal charter of 1373, was explicitly removed from its neighbouring counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset, for all purposes. The term 'county corporate' did not exist in 1373 and Bristol was simply created as a county.
They were legally described as forming separate counties, but in both contemporary usage whilst they existed and in discussion by modern historians the counties corporate are generally distinguished from the wider counties. From Tudor times onwards lord lieutenants were appointed to oversee the militia for each county; with the exceptions of London and Haverfordwest, each county corporate was covered by the lieutenant of an adjoining county. Provisions were also made allowing court cases arising from counties corporate to be heard at the assizes for the adjoining county.