ERBYSHIKE JARCHEOLOGICAL 
AND 
NATURAL bistory BOCIETY. 
o=O20 
Fhe OW Ashburne families. 
By JOHN SLEIGH, J.P. 
Read before the Society at Ashburne, 3rd July, 1880. 
connected with Ashburne and its neighbourhood, and 
many of whose members doubtless lie mouldering into 
dust beneath us, but three or four—the Fitzherberts, Okeovers, 
Shirleys, and Cokaynes—I believe, still exist in the locality, or 
retain any portion of their ancient inheritance. The changes 
incidental to a new order of things, when the last relics of 
feudalism were swept away ; and the losses incurred in the Civil 
Wars, account for the breaking up of many estates. And, indeed, 
as says an old writer, “‘ The very dash of fire in the blood which 
made the old houses illustrious in days of action, made them also 
apt to ruin themselves when there was nothing to do.” Charles 
Cotton, the spendthrift poet-angler, married the heiress of the 
older line of the Beresfords ; and from him derives, through the 
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