The family of Sherburne was of great antiquity and distinction in the county of Lancaster and possessed Stonyhurst from the time of the early Plantagenets. Under Edward I, Sir Robert Sherburn was seneschal of Wiswall and Blackburnshire, and in the martial reign of the third Edward, Sir John Sherburn, attending his royal master in his French wars, served at the siege of Calais. [John Burke & John Bernard Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Second Edition, Scott, Webster, & Geary, London, 1841, p. 465, Sherburne, of Stonyhurst]