1690 Earls of Atherstone

The following extracts have been taken from ‘The Barbers of the Peak’ by Ivan G. Mitford-Barberton (1896 – ?), published in 1934.

CHAPTER XII

THE ATHERSTONE FAMILY

The Atherstones belong to an old Warwickshire family, and the village named after the family of the Saxon Athelstan. ‘Atherstone and Atherstone Priory’ are mentiond in the Domesday Book. The remains of the Friary are still to be seen in the valley; near by stands the present old abbey. Tradition says that the Atherstone were deprived of their title (Earls of Atherstone) and estates for some political reason, and the family must have sunk for a time into poverty and obscurity.

Atherstone Friary was transferred in 1464 to the Carthusian monks. It was the custom for great saints or sinners to build churches, monasteries, abbeys, etc, as a thank-offering for some great mercy vochsafed, or in payment of a vow, or to expiae some bad deed.

The name Atherstone shows good origin. Some great man would own land, and live in state; in time a village would grow up round him, and later become a town taking his name. Families did not get their names from towns, but the towns from families. You will find all over England people with the name of some town; and if you trace back you will find their ancestors of rank had given their name to the town.

After the downfall of the house they did not use the old coat of arms, but when they came into their own again it emerged with the prosperity of the family. The coat of arms is a very old one-one of the oldest in England. A much-treausred copy on a roung wooden board was in the possession of Mr. John Atherstone.

Atherstone Hall was built from the ruins of Atherstone Friary. It was brought by marriage into the family of Sir John Repington, Kt., of Armington, and later sold to Abraham Bracebride, Esq., about 1690. A Bracebridge married a Miss Atherstone – an heiress. As far as is known, no family history was actally written. The Atherstones belong to one of the many thousands of the old fmailies who never had a written history. About 1760 three brothers and two sisters went to Nottingham from Higham-on-the-Hill, a village about 5 miles from Atherstone in Warwickshire. They set up a quite a big business as dyers, and did well, at leat Hugh did, for he became a very rich man. He married Ann Green. They were a very fine, much-loved, and respected couple They lived in a fine old house ‘like a castle’ in Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham. Amenia Barber describes how she visited it when a girl, but the lovely gardens were then built over, and the house let out in rooms. Much information given in this chapter and pedigree was supplied by Miss Amenia Barber, who was quite an authority on family history. She was a grand-daughter of Hugh and Ann Atherstone.

No trace of the family is to be found in Atherstone today, and the name is almost extinct in England, and no other family of that name has existed for a long time. In London there is still ‘Atherstone Mews’, ‘Atherstone Mansion’, and ‘Atherstone Terrace’, all of which at some time belonged to the family.

The Atherstones, besides claiming descent from the Saxon Athelstan, have an interesting family tree, which comes through the old Saxon dynasty from Egbert, King of all England A.D. 823, and through some of the Scottish line, then through the Hastings, Castells, and Damants to the descendant of Dr. John Atherstone in South Africa. This has been verified by the British Museum expert who helpd Mrs Harry Castell Damant in her research work. It is diret form parent to child without a single break. The Atherstones became an important family in Nottingham, as is recorded in Notabilities of Nottingham, published towards the end of the eighteenth century. This family was much interested in cloth manufacturing and dyeing.