Ashbourne, Derbyshire Family History Guide

Ashbourne or Ashbourne with Mapleton is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Derbyshire, created from Ashbourne Ancient Parish and Mapleton Ancient Parish.

Alternative names: Ashbourn, Ashborne, Ashbourne

Other places in the parish include: Hulland Ward Intakes, Hulland Ward Indaks, Mapleton, Hulland Ward, Newton Grange, Mappleton, Yieldersley, Hollin Ward, Holland Ward, Offcote and Underwood, Sturston, Yeldersley, and Hulland.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin: 1538;

Separate registers exist for:

  • Hulland: 1838
  • Mapleton: 1704

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Countess of Huntingdon Methodist, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Reform.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ASHBORNE, or Ashbourne, a small town, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Derby. The town stands on the river Henmore, 1¼ mile above its influx to the Dove, at the terminus of a branch of the North Stafford railway, 7½ miles NE of the junction with the main line at Rocester station, and 13½, by road, NW of Derby. It was formerly called Ashburn, and anciently Esseburn.

It belonged to the Crown at the time of the Conquest; passed to the duchy of Lancaster; was taken by the Parliamentarian forces in 1644; retaken by the Royal forces, and visited by Charles I., in 1645; and occupied as head quarters by the Scottish army of Prince Charles Edward, on their march to Derby, in 1745.

Its situation is pleasant, and its vicinity rich in romantic scenery; so as to occasion it to attract many visitors. Its houses, in general, are of red brick, roofed with slate; and its streets are tolerably neat. It has a head post office, a telegraph office, a banking office, three chief inns, a town hall, news-rooms, a small-jail, a grammar school, a national school, a parish church, a Calvinist chapel restored in 1869, three other dissenting chapels, a R. Catholic chapel, a workhouse of 1864, several alms-houses, and large general charities.

It is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place. The grammar school was founded in 1585; has estates yielding £214 a year; and is a substantial stone building. The house once inhabited by Dr. John Taylor, and visited by his intimate friend the great Dr. Johnson, stands opposite the grammar school.

The parish church is a spacious, cruciform, early English edifice of 1241; is surmounted by a central square tower, with lofty, ornamented, octagonal spire; was renovated in 1845, at a cost of nearly £5,000, mostly raised by subscription; and contains brasses and tombs of the Cockaines, the Bradburns, and the Boothbys. The finest of the monuments is a statuary one, in white marble, from the chisel of Banks, to the memory of Penelope. the only child of Sir Brooke Boothby, who died, in 1791, in her sixth year; and this is supposed to have suggested to Chantrey his beautiful group of the two children in Lichfield cathedral.

The town is in high repute as a mart for cattle, cheese, and other agricultural produce; and it has a weekly market on Saturday, general fairs on the first Tuesday in Jan., 13 Feb., 3 April, the last Thursday in April, 21 May, 5 July, 16 Aug., 20 Oct., and 29 Nov., or on the preceding day if the 29th be a Sunday, fairs for cheese on the second Tuesday in March and the third Tuesday in Sept., and fairs for horned cattle, sheep, and horses on the days preceding each. Malt-making, lace-making, and cotton manufacture are carried on. Pop., 3,501. Houses, 760.

The township lies wholly in the town. Real property, £6,605. Pop., 2,120. Houses, 472. The parish includes also the liberty of Offcote and Underwood, the townships of Sturston, Yeldersley, Hulland, Hulland-Ward, Hulland-Ward-Iudaks, and Clifton and Compton, the hamlet of Newton-Grange, and the chapelry of Alsop-le-Dale and Eaton. Acres, 7,932. Rated property, exclusive of Hulland chapelry, £26,342. Pop. of the whole, 5,078. Houses, 1,098. The property is much subdivided.

Ashborne Hall was long the seat of the Boothbys; was the quarters of Prince Charles Edward on his march to Derby; and is now the residence of Captain Holland R. N. Ashborne-Green Hall belongs to the De Burghs, and is a meeting-place of sportsmen.

Ashborne Grove belongs to the Dales. Mayfield Cottage, in the neighbourhood, was, for a considerable time, the residence of the poet Moore, and the place where he wrote great part of his “Lalla Rookh.” The Henmore and the Dove, in their connexion with the parish, afford prime angling for trout and grayling, and were noted for it by Warton and Cotton. Thorp-Cloud Hill, 3 miles from the town, and 300 feet high, commands a fine view of the craggy flanks of the Dove.

The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Mappleton, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £420. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The chapelries of Clifton, Hulland, and Alsop-le-Dale are separate charges. Sir Aston Cockaine, the Elizabethan poet, and Sir Brooke Boothby, the author of “Tables and Satires” and of other works, were natives.

The subdistrict comprises the parishes of Edlaston with-Wyaston, Osmaston, Bradley, and Kniveton, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne and Bradbourne. Acres, 11,442. Pop., 4,876. Houses, 1,041.

The district consists of Asborne poor-law union and part of Allstonefield, Gilbert’s incorporation; and comprehends, in addition to Ashborne subdistrict, the subdistrict of Brailsford, containing the parishes of Brailsford, Longford, and Shirley, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne, Mugginton, and Wirksworth, the subdistrict of Hartington, containing the parish of Parwich, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne, Hartington, and Bradbourne, the subdistrict of Brassington, containing the parishes of Carsington, Hognaston, and Bonsall, the extra-parochial tract of Griff-Grange, and parts of the parishes of Bradbourne, Kirk-Ireton, and Wirksworth, the subdistrict of Mayfield, containing the parishes of Snelston and Ellastone, the latter electorally in Stafford, and parts of the parishes of Ashborne and Mayfield, the latter electorally in Stafford, and the subdistrict of Calton, containing the parishes of Tissington, Fenny-Bentley, Thorpe, Mappleton, Okeover, Blore, Ilam, and Waterfall, the four last electorally in Stafford, the extra-parochial tract of Musden-Grange, electorally in Stafford, and parts of the parishes of Bradbourne, Mayfield, and Allstonefield, the two last in Stafford.

Acres, 100,937. Poor-rates in 1866, £8,029. Pop. in 1841, 21,358; in 1861, 20,648. Houses, 4,384. Marriages in 1866, 163; births, 620, of which 51 were illegitimate; deaths, 397, of which 114 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,390 births, 6,252; deaths, 4,064.

The places of worship in 1851 were 41 of the Church of England, with 9,921 sittings, 4 of Independents, with 440 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon’s Connection, with 340 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 300 s.; 21 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2,841 s.; 24 of Primitive Methodists, with 2,301 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 290 s.; and one undefined, with 90 s.

The schools in 1851 were 60 public day schools, with 2,193 scholars; 40 private day schools, with 930 s.; 57 Sunday schools, with 3,112 s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 70 s.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Ashbourne, a parish, partly in the hund. of Appletree, partly in that of Morleston and Litchurch, but chiefly in that of Wirksworth, county of Derby. In the hundred of Appletree it comprises the townships of Hulland and Hulland-ward-Intacks, with the hamlets of Sturston, Hulland-ward, and Yeldersley; in the hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, the township of Clifton with Compton; and in the hundred of Wirksworth, the town of Ashbourne, the chapelry of Alsop-le-Dale with Eaton, and the liberties of Newton-Grange, and Offcoat with Underwood.

Living, a discharged vicarage in the archd. of Derby and dio. of Lichfield, in connection with the rectory of Mapleton St Mary; rated at £5 4s. 7d., in the parliamentary returns at £65; gross income £148. The patronage of the church, and the rectoral tithes, were given by William Rufus to the dean of Lincoln, with whose successors they still continue. The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel here. There are two daily and Sunday National schools in the parish, with about 110 scholars. Pop., in 1801, 4,708; in 1831, 4,884. Houses 1,003. Acres 12,800. A.P. £25,906.

Soource: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Ashborne, 139 m. N.W. London, and 13 miles Derby. Mrkt., Sat. P. 4936

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland 1833

Ashborne, co. Derby. London 139 m. NW. Derby 13½ m. NW. Pop. of Par. 4756. Of To. 2188. M.D. Sat. Mail arr. 11.9 f. Mail dep. 2.43 a. Fairs, 1st Tu. in Jan., and Feb. 13, for horses and horned cattle; Ap. 3, May 21, and July, for ditto and wool; Aug. 16, Oct. 20, and Nor. 29, for horses and horned cattle. The Fairs for horses begin two or three days before the Fair-day.

A market-town and parish, partly in each of the hundreds of Morleston and Litchurch, and of Appletree and Wirksworth, on the borders of Staffordshire. This town is pleasantly situated in a rich valley on the eastern side; of the Dove, over which is a stone bridge. It is divided into two parts by a rivulet, called the Henmore, the most southern of which division is termed Compton, the ancient Campdene. The town is neat, but exhibits nothing remarkable in its buildings. It was a royal manor at the time of the conquest, and became subsequently a part of the duchy of Lancaster until sold by Charles I.

The living is a dis. vicarage, united to the rectory of Mapleton, in the archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry; val. in K. B. 5l. 4s. 7d.; ann. val. P. R. 65l.; patron, the Dean of Lincoln. The church, dedicated to St. Oswald, is supposed to have been finished in the thirteenth century. It contains many monuments to the Cokaines, Bradburns, and Boothbys, successively possessors of the manors.

The free grammar-school was founded in the reign of Elizabeth by Sir Thomas Cokaine, and other natives, for children of the town and neighbourhood, as also a second for the poorer class of children of both sexes. Here are likewise a chapel and a neat row of almshouses, founded in 1800, by a native named Cooper, who made a fortune in London, for six poor men and women; besides several other hospitals for decayed housekeepers, including one for the maintenance of four clergymens’ widows.

This town has a considerable trade in cheese and malt, and many horses and cattle are sold at its fairs. Much lace is made here, and the iron and cotton factories in the neighbourhood employ a great many persons. The beautiful and romantic glen, called Dovedale, is within a short distance of this town.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland by John Gorton. The Irish and Welsh articles by G. N. Wright; Vol. I; London; Chapman and Hall, 186, Strand; 1833.

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