This is the only remaining branch of the old Lancashire family of Assheton, originally seated at Assheton-under-Lyne, and of whom the Asshetons of Middleton and of Great Lever, both Baronets, represented the elder lines. The present family descend from Radcliffe Assheton, second son of Ralph Assheton, of Great Lever, born in 1582.
Downham appears to have come into the family in the seventeenth century.
See Whitaker's Whalley, p. 299 and p. 300, for the curious journal of Nicholas Assheton, of Downham, Esq. 1617-18, since published entire as vol. xiv. of the series of the Chetham Society, 1848. For Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne, Baines's Lancashire, ii. 532, and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. vii. 12; for Ashton of Lever and Whalley, Baines, iii. 190.
Arms.—Argent, a mullet pierced sable.
Present Representative, Ralph Assheton, Esq.
Radclyffe of Foxdenton.
This is a younger branch of the well-known Lancashire family of this name, who trace their descent from Richard of Radclyffe Tower, near Bury, in the reign of Edward I. Ordshall, also in this county, was for many ages the seat of the ancestors of the present family, who are descended from Robert, sixth and youngest son of Sir Alexander Radclyffe, of Ordshall, who was born in 1650. Foxdenton, which as early as the fifteenth century belonged to one branch of the Radclyffes, was bequeathed to the present family early in the last century. The extinct house of the Radclyffes, Barons Fitzwalter and Earls of Sussex 1529, were sprung from William, elder brother of the first Sir John Radclyffe, of Ordshall. The Radclyffes of Dilston, Baronets 1619, and Earls of Derwentwater 1687, were perhaps also of the same origin, but this has not been ascertained.
See Burke's Landed Gentry, 2nd. ed. vol. ii. p. 1091, and Ellis's Family of Radclyffe, for the House of Dilston (1850).
Arms.—Argent, two bends engrailed sable, a label of three points gules. The more simple coat of Argent, a bend engrailed sable, was borne by the Earls of Sussex, and also by the Earls of Derwentwater.