The Atherstone Family

 

Taken from 'Barbers of the Peak' by Ivan Mitford-Barberton:
The Atherstones belong to an old Warwickshire family, and the village named after the family near Merevale still exists.  They claim descent from the family the Saxon Athelstan.  'Atherstone and Atherstone Priory' are mentioned in Domesday Baook.  The remains of the Friary are still to be seen in the valley; near by stands the present old abbey.  Tradition says that the Atherstones 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 custome for great saints or sinners to build churches, monasteries, abbey, &c., as a thank-offering for some great mercy vouchsafed, or in payment of a vow, or to expiate some bad deed..................
.........As far as is known, no family history was actually written.  The Atherstones belong to one of the many thousands of the old families 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 quite a big business as dyers, and did well, at least 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................
.........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; and from them the descent to the present day is clear.
The three brothers, William, Hugh, and Samuel, were those who went to Nottingham.  From Hugh, who had a family of fifteen, are descended the Atherstones in South Africa.

Extracts from the Doomesday Book:

page 72

Devonshire is England's third largest country, and one of only three to have both a north and south coast.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 823 referred to the inhabitants as Defnas, a name derived from the Celtic Dumnonii, who settled in the south-west of England.
The country is bordered to the north-east by Somerset (with which it shares the national park of Exmoor) and by Dorest to the south-east.  Its western border is the River Tamar, a boundary that was probably fixed during Athelstan's reign, 150 years before Domesday.

page 75

Topsham
Although the manor of Topsam had been granted in 937 by Atherlstan to the Church of St Peter's, Exeter, it was held after the Conlquest by King William himself.

page 282

Atherstone Aderstone;
Nicholas from Countess Godiva.  10 sticks of eels. Market town on the Roman Watling Street, Atherstone Hall.

Atherstone on Stour
Edricestone: Corbin from Bishop of Bayeux. Mill.

Map showing whereAtherstone is, in England

 

Click here to see the Atherstone Family Tree.