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Eyre Tradition

[linkfile=eyre_tradition.htm]Eyre Tradition[/linkfile]

Extracts from an article by G. H. B. Ward, F. R. G. S, in the clarion handbook, 1930.

The Derbyshire Family of Eyres by G. H. B. W.

The Eyre Tradition

It is probable that, if old records and genealogies could be traced, many of the Eyres (farmers and others) who still reside in the upper Derwent, Ashop and Hope Valleys, and in the villages of Castleton, Eyam, Hathersage, etc, could claim descent from a branch of this celebrated and once powerful north-west Derbyshire family. Mr W. Bemrose, Junr, in an article on North Lees, Hathersage (“The Reliquary”, April, 1869), gives the family tradition which, he declares is copied from an old pedigree then preserved at Hassop.

“The first of the Eyres came with William the Conqueror, and his name was Truelove, but in the battle of Hastings (14/10/1066) this Truelove, seeing the King unhorsed, and his helmet beat so close to his face that he could not breathe, pulled off his helmet and horsed him again. The King said: ‘Thou shalt hereafter from Truelove be called Air or Eyre, because thou hast given me the air I breathe.’ After the battle the King called for him and being found with his thigh cut off, he ordered him to be taken care of, and being recovered, he gave him lands in the county of Derby in reward for his services, and the seat he lived in called Hope because he had Hope in the greatest extremity; and the King gave the leg and thigh cut off, in armour, for his crest, which is still the crest of the Eyres.”