County magistrate, bailiff, magistrate and sheriff

Throughout most of the 17th century, Eiker was a separate fief, but with its own lord and bailiff. From 1679, however, it was part of the newly established Buskerud county, and in 1708 Sigdal, Modum, Eiker, Lier, Røyken and Hurum were merged into one bailiff's office. Both the county governor and bailiff resided in or near Drammen, and they often sent deputies to the local assemblies. They were high-ranking officials, with whom the common people of Eiker only rarely came into contact.

During the years that the Nøstetangen glassworks was in operation, Buskerud had only two county governors - Just Must, who held office from 1719 to 1760, and Andreas Fjeldsted, who was county governor from 1760 to 1788. The county governor's immediate subordinate was the bailiff, who was both a public prosecutor and responsible for collecting taxes and fees. Throughout most of this period - from 1749 to 1765 - Eggert Madsen Fischer was bailiff in the lower part of Buskerud.

The bailiff was divided into two magistrates' offices, and the northernmost half includes Eiker, Modum and Sigdal. The magistrate did not live in Eiker either in the latter half of the 18th century. Both Giert Falch, who was magistrate from 1730 to 1753, and his successor Otto Laurentii Darjes, who held the office until 1780, both resided on the Mælum farm in Modum. However, when there was a court session at Eiker, they usually appeared there, unless they had a valid reason to do so. Such sessions were held three times a year, but "Extra-court sessions" could also be scheduled outside of this. The court sessions were held in Haugsund, but their own courtroom did not get its own location until around 1840. In the 18th century, the court was held in privately owned houses - Lieutenant Winther's house and later Madame Braun's house are constantly mentioned as "Eger's arranged courtroom".

Alongside the parish priest, the sheriff was the public official who was present in the local community on a daily basis. Ever since the Middle Ages, the "farmer sheriff" had been the extended arm of the sheriff and bailiff at the local level – but at the same time the common people's spokesman towards the authorities. In the 18th century, the sheriff probably still had some of this role, but formally he was the county governor's subordinate, but responsible for maintaining law and order, collecting fines and a number of other tasks. The sheriff was no longer one of the village's large farmers, but an immigrant with roots in the bourgeoisie.

In 1741, the same year that the glassworks at Nøstetangen were built, Eiker got a new sheriff - Peder Eliasen Søboholm. However, he died the following year. Then Søren Hiermind was sheriff from 1743 to 1751, Ole Høyland (hardly a relative of the famous master thief of the same name) from to 1761 and Stephanus Bagge until 1771. None of these four were born in Eiker, but all lived in Haugsund and were homeowners there. Between 1769 and 1775, Anders Høyland is also mentioned as sheriff at Eiker. He was a native of Eikværing and the son of the previous sheriff, Ole Høyland.