[Illustration] "A family of stupendous antiquity," writes Fuller.
"The most ancient family in these tracts," according to Camden.
"Genealogists have given them a Saxon origin," says Brydges; "but
that is a fact very difficult to be proved, though very commonly
asserted. They do not, I believe, appear in Domesday Book." There
can be no doubt, however, that the Ashburnhams have been seated at
Ashburnham from the reign of Henry II., and probably from a much
earlier period, and are descended from Bertram, Constable of Dover
in the reign of William the Conqueror. By the improvidence of Sir
John Ashburnham, who died in 1620, this ancient patrimony was lost
for a time, but recovered by Frances Holland, the wife of his eldest
son John (the groom of the bed-chamber to Charles I.), who sold her
whole estate, and laid out the money in redeeming Ashburnham.
Younger Branch. Ashburnham of Bromham in this county, Baronet 1661,
descended from Richard, second son of Thomas Ashburnham, living in
the reign of Henry VI.
See Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 249; and Wotton's Baronetage,
vol. iii. p. 283.
ARMS.--_Gules, a fess between six mullets argent_. The earliest seal
remaining of any of the ancestors of this family is, I believe, that
of "Stephen de Esburne," great-grandson of Bertram, the Constable of
Dover: the device is a slip or branch of Ash. His grandson, "Richard
de Hasburnan," bore the Maltravers fret, his mother being daughter
of Sir John Maltravers: the present coat was borne by Sir John de
Aschebornham, in the reign of Edward II. (Seals and Roll of the
reign of Edward II.)
Present Representative, Bertram Ashburnham, 4th Earl of Ashburnham.