Cumberland.
The ten principal estates in the parish of Hesket were formerly called Red Spears, from the titles of the owners, obtained from the curious tenure of riding through the town of Penrith on every Whitsun Tuesday, brandishing their spears. These Red-Spear Knights seem to have been regarded as sureties to the sheriff for the peaceable behaviour of the inhabitants.—Britton and Brayley, Beauties of England and Wales, 1802, vol. iii. p. 171.