The High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, Thomas Andrewes, led Mary Queen of Scots to her beheading in 1587 and then was charged with the secret and singlehanded burial of her body in Fotheringhay Castle. Andrewes carried out these instructions so carefully that to this day the burial site has never been discovered.
Sir Arthur Throckmorton, High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1605 when the Gunpowder Plot unfolded, presented a bill to Parliament of £112 for his costs in seizing and safekeeping the goods of Francis Tresham of Rushton and Robert Catesby of Ashby St. Ledgers, who were involved in the plot to blow up Parliament and were both from shrieval families themselves.
In 1642, Sir William Willmore was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours for breaking the privileges of Parliament in attempting to publish, on the King's Warrant, a book "hindering the militia, as the King is to be obeyed for all (despite) Parliament". It may be that his guilt was compounded by being critical of a particular Northamptonshire community - Wilby - because it is claimed he said, "You Wilbymen go a contrary Way to all the World; are you wiser than all Men?"
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