2 THE OLD ASHBURNE FAMILIES. 
Lucys and Comptons, the present Duke of Devonshire. Sir 
William Fitzherbert represents another branch ; and, as showing 
that the ancient martial spirit which nerved the arm of the Agin- 
court hero, Thomas Beresford, who, with his sixteen sons and five 
daughters, sleeps his long sleep at Bentley, still distinguishes the 
race, I need but name Lord William Beresford, who has but 
lately won his V.C. in Zululand. Philip Kinder, the Derbyshire 
historian, speaks of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, of Norbury, who 
died 1538, as having “ given life with law unto the common lawes 
of England, and in comparison put the codes with digest into a 
bag.” Mr. Okeover, a true type of a Saxon gentleman, is the 
~ chief of a family, lords of Okeover long previous to the conquest. 
Shirley was the common “cunabula,’ or cradle of the great 
baronial family of Shirley, Earls Ferrers ; and of the Ireton family, 
from whom descended the stern old Puritan general, Henry 
Ireton, who married my Lord Protector’s daughter Bridget, sate 
in judgment on unhappy Charles Stuart (who, by the way, was 
twice at Ashburne, lodging on one occasion at Mr. Cokayne’s, 13 
Aug., 1645), and died at Limerick, though buried in the Abbey, 
whence his body at the Restoration was ignominiously expelled and 
hung in chains at Tyburn. A John Cokayne was of Ashburne in 
the reign of King Stephen, and from him come down in stately 
succession numerous knights of the shire—Sir John Cokayne, 
Chief Baron of the Exchequer, ob. 1447 ; many doughty warriors 
—notably Edmund, slain on the King’s side at Shrewsbury 
(1404); and Sir Thomas, knighted by bluff old Hal at the 
slege of Tournay. It is bitterly to be regretted that at the 
time of the spoliation of this noble church in 1840, the original 
armour surmounting this knight’s tomb was sent away to the 
Hall as so much rubbish, and hitherto has not been recovered. 
Another Sir Thos. Cokayne, of Ashburne, who ob. 1592, was 
author of a “Shorte Treatise of Hunting, compiled for ye 
Delighte of Noblemen and Gentylmen.” In it he states, “ ffor 
this 52 yeares during which tyme I have hunted ye Bucke 
in sumer & ye hare in winter, 2 yeares only excepted. In the 
one having King Henry the 8th hys letters to serve in hys 
