Howard family, Earls of Carlisle

The Dacre family owned land in Cumberland from the 13th century and acquired Naworth and Gilsland (Cumberland) by marriage in the 14th century. Further lands were added by purchase, royal grant and inheritance, including (from c.1488) estates in Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland and Co. Durham (Morpeth etc.) and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire (Hinderskelf and Grimthorpe) belonging to the barony of Greystoke.

Following the death of the 5th Lord Dacre (of the North) in 1569, his eldest daughter Anne, later Countess of Arundel, inherited the barony of Greystoke (see Fitzalan-Howard, Dukes of Norfolk), but the Naworth, Hinderskelf (later Castle Howard), Morpeth and Grimthorpe estates passed to a younger daughter, Elizabeth, who married Lord William Howard (1560-1640), a younger son of the 4th Duke of Norfolk. Charles Howard (1629-85), his great-grandson, was created Earl of Carlisle in 1661. His daughter Mary married Sir John Fenwick, on whose execution in 1697 some of the Fenwick property in Northumberland was granted to the Earl of Carlisle. Additions were also made to the Co. Durham estates in the 1690s, by purchase from the Fetherstonhaugh family.

Purchases and exchanges of land, including some with the Dukes of Devonshire, increased the Cumberland, Yorkshire and Northumberland estates in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. These estates were administered from offices at Naworth Castle (Cumberland and Northumberland), Castle Howard (Yorkshire) and Morpeth (Northumberland and Durham). Much of the Morpeth estate, however, was sold c.1888-90 and in 1915. On the death of Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, in 1921, the estates were divided mainly between her only surviving son, who inherited Castle Howard and most of the Yorkshire estates, and her grandson, the 11th Earl, who received Naworth Castle, parts of the Cumberland estate and the remaining property in Northumberland. Other relatives inherited small portions of the Cumberland and Yorkshire estates.

Estates in 1883: 47,730 acres in Cumberland; 17,780 acres in Northumberland and 13,030 acres in the North Riding of Yorkshire, worth a total of £49,601 a year.