University Archives
Sherburne family, of Stonyhurst, Lancashire
The Sherburne family owned land in Stonyhurst in Lancashire from at least 1246. Richard Sherburne (1460-1513) built the choir at Mitton church and was succeeded by his son, Hugh Sherburne (1480-1528). Thomas Sherburne (1505-1536), was High Sheriff of Lancashire and Richard Sherburne (1526-1594), was knighted and held various public offices including Lieutenant of Lancashire. He enlarged his estates and rebuilt the house at Stonyhurst and Mitton church. He retained his Catholic faith after the Reformation and his son, Richard Sherburne (1546-1629) bought the rectory and advowson of Mitton from James I to avoid problems with non-attendance at church. Richard Sherburne (1586-1667), married Elizabeth Walmsley (d.1666) and in the 1640s they were forced to flee to York when their estates were sequestered by Parliament. Their son, Richard Sherburn (1626-1689), remained at Stonyhurst. Their daughter, Anne, married Marmaduke Constable, who was also Catholic and Royalist, and they lived with the couple on their Everingham estates. The papers in the collection relate entirely to the family in the seventeenth century and are embedded within the larger collection of the Constable Maxwell family. They comprise wills and settlements, surveys of the Sherburne estates in Stonyhurst, Lancashire, correspondence with estate steward, Gabriel Hesketh, family correspondence and legal documents relating to a dispute over the 1667 will of Richard Sherburne. [DDEV/69]