Lady Anne Clifford was born in 1590 at Skipton Castle in Craven; Lady Anne was the only daughter, and only surviving child, of George Clifford, the third Earl of Cumberland, and Margaret Russell, their two sons dying aged five and aged six within two years of one another.

Lady Anne was fifteen when her father died and his will became the subject of a lengthy and high-profile dispute.

Lord Cumberland had left his northern estates – consisting of Appleby, Pendragon, Brougham, Brough, Barden, and Skipton – to his brother, Sir Francis Clifford, the new Earl of Cumberland, with reversion to Lady Anne in the event of failure of male heirs; however a deed dating back to the Edward II in respect of the estates entailed them lineally upon the eldest heir, irrespective of sex.

Lady Anne, the natural inheritor, determined with her mother to obtain possession of the estates to which she was legally entitled; her mother, wrote Lady Anne,

“…out of her affectionate care of my good, caused me to choose her my guardian, and then in my name she began to sue out a livery in the Court of Wards for my right to all my father’s lands, by way of prevention to hinder and interrupt the livery which my uncle of Cumberland intended to sue out in my name without either my consent, or my mother’s, which caused great suits of law to arise between her and my said uncle which in effect continued for one cause or other during her life, in which she showed a most brave spirit and never yielded to any opposition whatsoever.”

Her mother was famously her sole ally.

Lady Anne’s first husband, Richard Sackville, opposed her claim; he was considered a squanderer and wanted her to renounce her rights in consideration for a sum in cash. He enlisted King James, who, Lady Anne wrote, “begun to show himself extremely against my mother and me. In which course he still persisted, though his wife, Queen Anne, was ever inclining to our part and was very gracious and favourable to us.”

Lady Anne and her mother faced significant opposition but continued to fight; after her mother’s death in May 1616, which Lady Anne described as “the greatest and most lamentable cross that could have befallen me”, she carried on alone, facing the King who “sometimes […] used fair means and persuasions and sometimes foul means but I was resolved before so as nothing would move me.”

She refused to accept a settlement after which the estates were given to her uncle, and she suffered greatly. It was not until the death of her uncle in 1641 and his only son Henry in 1643, leaving no male heirs, that Lady Anne finally came into possession of the estates, thirty-eight years after her father’s death.

She found the estates she loved sadly neglected and, she writes, “I employed myself in building and reparations […], and in causing the bounders to be ridden, and my court kept in my several manors […], and in those kind of country affairs about my estate which I found in extreme disorder, by reason it had been so long kept from me as from the death of my father till this time, and by occasion of the late civil wars in England.”

Lady Anne’s diaries describe in great detail the building works she undertook between 1651 and 1662, as she set about repairing the castles, pulling down and rebuilding churches “being very ruinous and in danger of falling of itself”, and commencing building projects “at my own charge”. The diaries are a rich, historical document and testament to this formidable woman’s management of her estates.

She writes in 1659, for example, “after I had first been there myself to direct the building of it, did I cause my old decayed castle of Brough to be repaired, and also the old tower, called the Roman Tower in the said castle and a courthouse for keeping of my courts in, with some dozen or fourteen rooms to be built in it upon the old foundation”.

In 1660, she wrote,

“in June this year by my directions was also my old decayed castle of Pendragon in Mallerstang in the said county of Westmorland begun to be repaired, which had lain waste (as appears by many records in Skipton Castle before the late civil wars) ever since the 15th of Edward the 3rd […] And it was so well repaired by me that on the 14th of October in the following I lay there for three nights together which none of my ancestors had done since Idonea de Veteripont lay in it, who died eighth [year of] Edward 3rd without issue.”

Work took place on Skipton Castle between 1655 and 1659, however there was great concern that Lady Anne’s restoration would mean the castle would be defensible again and restrictions were placed on the materials used and the manner of rebuilding; in the autumn of 1659, it was threatened that the walls and ramparts would be taken down. Lady Anne was at pains to show that her aim was to make Skipton habitable again; indeed, she often referred to it as a “house” rather than a “castle”.

Lady Anne was commemorated as an “absolute mistress of herself, her resolutions, actions and time”; this was especially true in her approach to her building projects. Her writing reflects her pride in her estates and her having attained them, taken an active role in their restoration – making them habitable again after so many years – and maintained them.

The remainder of the diary recounts her travels between her estates, and the lives of her large family and others around her.

She died on 22 March 1676, at the age of 86, in Brougham Castle.

The following, added by Thomas Tufton, Earl of Thanet, her surviving heir and grandson, to conclude her diaries, perfectly captures her legacy –

“This noble and pious Lady, after a happy and retired life in these northern parts ever since the year 1649 where she repaired all those ancient castles and houses of her inheritance after they had lain ruinous many years, built and repaired several churches, chapels, bridges, and other structures of public benefit, built and endowed almshouses in both counties, making acts of charity and goodness the delight of her life, and with such great care and resolution preserved and defended her undoubted right to this northern estate, and so settled the same (which by her father was left in great confusion and disorder).”