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.">[