Nicholas, earl of Thanet, was succeeded by his next brother John, the
fourth earl, born 7th August, 1638. He also succeeded his mother
Margaret, countess of Thanet, as baron Clifford, Westmoreland, and
Vescey, who by her last will, dated June 19, 1676, gave the Yorkshire
and Westmoreland estates to this John for life; she died the 14th August
following, and he then succeeded her in the sheriffdoms of Westmoreland
and Cumberland, where it frequently happened that female heiresses
became possessed of them.
There are several instances of women bearing that office, as may be seen
in most of the treatises in which that duty is mentioned. Those things
required by it, not proper to be undertaken by a female, were intrusted
to a deputy, or shire clerk.
Not only the office of sheriff, but even justice of peace, has been in
the hands of the fair sex. Among the Harleian manuscripts is a very
remarkable note, taken from Mr. Attorney-general Noy’s readings in
Lincoln’s-inn, in 1632, in which, upon the point whether the office of a
justice of a forest might be executed by a woman, it was said, that
Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother to Henry VII., was a justice of
peace; that the lady Bartlet was made a justice of peace by queen Mary
in Gloucestershire; and that in Sussex, one Rouse, a woman, did usually
sit upon the bench at assizes and sessions among the other justices,
_gladio-cincta_, girded with a sword. It is equally certain, that Anne,
countess of Pembroke, exercised the office of hereditary sheriff of
Westmoreland, and at the assizes of Appleby sat with the judges on the
bench, which puts this point beyond a question.