_Lady High Sheriff_ (Vol. vii., p. 236.).--There is a passage in
Warton's _History of English Poetry_ (Vol. i. p. 194., Tegg's edition)
which will in part answer the Query of your correspondent W. M. It is in
the form of a note, appended to the following lines from the metrical
romance of _Ipomydon_:
"They come to the castelle yate
The porter was redy there at,
The porter to theyme they gan calle,
And prayd hym go in to the halle,
And say thy lady gent and fre,
That comen ar men of ferre contrè,
And if it plese hyr, we wolle hyr pray,
That we myght ete with hyr to-day."
On this passage Warton remarks:
"She was lady, by inheritance, of the signory. The female
feudatories exercised all the duties and honours of their
feudal jurisdiction in person. In Spenser, where we read of
the _Lady of the Castle_, we are to understand such a
character. See a story of a _Comtesse_, who entertains a
knight in her castle with much gallantry. (_Mém. sur l'Anc.
Chev._, ii. 69.) It is well known that anciently in England
ladies were sheriffs of counties."
To this note of Warton's, Park adds another, which I also give as being
more conclusive on the subject. It is as follow:
["Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was a justice of peace. Sir
W. Dugdale tells us that Ela, widow of William, Earl of
Salisbury, executed the sheriff's office for the county of
Wilts, in different parts of the reign of Henry III. (See
_Baronage_, vol. i. p. 177.) From Fuller's _Worthies_ we find
that Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Lord Clifford, was sheriffess
of Westmoreland for many years; and from Pennant's _Scottish
Tour_ we learn that for the same county Anne, the celebrated
Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, often sat in
person as sheriffess. Yet Riston doubted of facts to
substantiate Mr. Warton's assertion. See his Obs. p. 10., and
reply in the _Gent. Mag. 1782_, p. 573.--PARK."]