[Illustration] Although the foundation of the consequence of this family was laid by Richard Onslow, a celebrated lawyer of the reign of Elizabeth, yet he was sprung from an old gentle family seated at Onslow in Shropshire, as far back as the time of Richard I., and probably much earlier. The first recorded ancestor is John de Ondeslowe, whose grandson, Warin, was father of "Roger de Ondeslow juxta Shrewsbury," whose son Thomas was living in the twelfth of Edward II. 1318. Richard Onslow became Speaker of the House of Commons, and died in 1571. He was the first of his family connected with Surrey, by his marriage with Catherine, daughter and heir of Richard Harding, of Knoll, in this county, in the year 1554. West-Clandon was purchased in 1641 by Sir Richard Onslow, created a Baronet in 1660; the ancient family estate of Onslow having been sold by Edward Onslow in 1617. Younger Branches. Onslow of Altham in the county of Lancaster, Baronet 1797, descended from the next brother of the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1726 to 1761. Onslow of Staughton, in the county of Huntingdon, descended from the second son of Sir Richard Onslow, the first Baronet. See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 461; Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 723; and Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 90, corrected by the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris. ARMS.--_Argent, a fess gules between six Cornish choughs proper_. Present Representative, Arthur George Onslow, third Earl of Onslow. SUSSEX. +Knightly.+ ASHBURNHAM OF ASHBURNHAM, EARL OF ASHBURNHAM 1730; BARON 1689. [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.