Daniel Scott
Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664622938
Table of Contents
Fighting Bishops and Fortified Churches.
Manorial Laws and Curiosities of Tenures.
Some Legends and Superstitions.
Some Old Trading Laws and Customs.
Preface.
The information contained in the following pages has been derived from many sources during the last twenty years, and in a considerable number of cases I have examined old registers and other documents without being then aware that some of their contents had already been published.
Few districts in the United Kingdom have been more thoroughly “worked” for antiquarian and archæological purposes than have Cumberland and Westmorland. The Antiquarian Society and the numerous Literary and Scientific Societies have, during the last thirty years, been responsible for a great amount of research. I have endeavoured to acknowledge each source—not only as a token of my own obligation, but as a means of directing others wishing further information on the various points.
I also desire to acknowledge the help received in various ways from numerous friends in the two counties.
Daniel Scott.
Penrith, June 1st, 1899.
An Unparalleled Sheriffwick.
For a period of 645 years—from 1204 to 1849—Westmorland, unlike other counties in England (excluding, of course, the counties Palatine), had no Sheriff other than the one who held the office by hereditary right. The first Sheriff of the county is mentioned in 1160, and nine or ten other names occur at subsequent periods, until in 1202, the fourth year of the reign of King John, came Robert de Vetripont. Very soon afterwards the office was made hereditary in his family “to have and to hold of the King and his heirs.” The honour and privileges were possessed by no less than twenty-two of Robert’s descendants. Their occupation of the office covers some very exciting periods of county history, the tasks committed to the Sheriffs in former centuries being frequently of an arduous as well as dangerous character.
The Sheriff had very important duties of a military character to carry out. Thus in the sixth year of Henry the Third we have the command from the King to the Sheriff of Westmorland that without any delay he should summon the earls, barons, knights, and freeholders of his bailiwick, and that he should hasten to Cockermouth and besiege the castle there, afterwards destroying it to its very foundations. This order was a duplicate of one sent to the Sheriff of Yorkshire concerning Skipton Castle and other places. It is not known, however, whether the instructions respecting Cockermouth were carried out or not.
The powers of Sheriff not being confined to the male members of the family, the histories of Westmorland contain the unusual information that at least two women occupied, by right of office, seats on the bench alongside the Judges. The first of these was Isabella de Clifford, widow of Robert, and, wrote the historian Machell, “She sate as is said in person at Apelby as Sheriff of the county, and died about 20 of Edward I.” The other case was that of the still more powerful, strenuous, and gifted woman, Anne, Countess of Pembroke. Of her it is recorded that she not only took her seat on the bench, but “rode on a white charger as Sheriffess of Westmorland, before the Judges to open the Assizes.” It will not be forgotten that territorial lords and ladies in bygone times held Courts of their own in connection with their manors and castles. The Rev. John Wharton, Vicar of South Stainmore, in a communication to the writer some time ago said: “From documents shown me by the late John Hill, Esq., Castle Bank, Appleby, the great but somewhat masculine Anne, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery, seemed partial to Courts of her own. She sat upon many offenders as a judge, and it is handed down that she executed divers persons for treasonous designs and plotting against her estate.”
The Memoranda Rolls belonging to the Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer, show the mode of presenting or nominating the Sheriff for Westmorland in the time of the Cliffords, his admittance to the office by the Barons of the Exchequer, and his warrant for executing it. From the Rolls of the 15th, 19th, and 23rd years of Edward the First, when the Sheriffwick passed into the family of the Cliffords, it seems that the right of appointment was the subject of litigation between the two daughters and heiresses of the last of the Vetriponts. This ended in an agreement that the elder sister should “present” to, and the younger should “approve” the appointment. In this way Robert de Moreville was admitted to the office of Sheriff in the fifteenth year of Edward’s reign, Gilbert de Burneshead three years later, and Ralph de Manneby in 1295, each swearing faithfully to execute his office and answer to both daughters. On the death of the sisters the Sheriffwick became vested in Robert de Clifford, son and heir of the eldest, and continued in the possession of his descendants until the attainder in 1461.
The list of Sheriffs is, of course, a very long one, and even allowing for the large number of individuals who have left nothing more than their names, there is much material for interesting study in the histories of the others. The actual work was rarely done by the holders of the office. “The functionaries who performed the duties were simply deputies for the Sheriff, and although we find them attesting many ancient charters and grants relating to the county, recording themselves as Vice-Comites (or Sheriffs), they simply executed