The noble earls of this surname and title claim to have possessed Ashburnham, co. Sussex, from before the Norman Conquest. In 1066 Bertram de Ashburnham, son of Anchitel, son of Piers, was constable of Dover, and held out against William. Peerage.

Or De Criol. In the time of Edward the Confessor Esseborne belonged to Sewardus (Domesd.). In 1086 it belonged to Robert, Count of Eu, from whom it was held by Robert de Cruel (Domesd. 18). The same Robert held salt-works there, and lands in Boxhill and Hou (Ib.). Simon de Criol, his son, had, Reginald de Esseburnham, who held two fees of the Earl of Eu, 1165 (Liber Niger), and whose son, Stephen de Ashburnham, confirmed to Battle Abbey the gift of lands at Hou and Denne, and of the salt-works granted by Reginald, his father (Mon. Angl.), and sold lands, as Stephen de Cuell, to Roberts- bridge Abbey (Mon. i. 916). The name frequently occurs in the 12th cent. in connection with this family as Cruel, Crieul, and other forms; and was the same as Criol or Kyriel, a Norman baronial family in Kent. It derived from Robert, Count of Eu, whose younger son, Robert, obtained from his father part of Criol, or Crieul, near Eu. His father had been in possession of Criol previously, as appears by one of his charters to the Abbey of Treport (Gall. Christ. xi. col. 13 Instr.). The Ashburnhams bore the arms of Criol next their own. Some branches of the house of Criol in England bore the arms of Eu, viz., bendy; and one of their coats is very similar to that of Ashburnham; viz., on a fesse, three mullets, between three fleur-de-lys. The Earls of Ashburnham are of this Norman race.

(English), Ash-river home. Ashhurst, Ash grove. Ashley, Ashfield. Ashton and Aston, Ash down or hill, if derived from Aston, anciently Æcesdun, Berks; but Hurst town if from Aston, anciently Estone, co. Warwick. There are, however, more than sixty places in England called Aston or Ashton, most of which were undoubtedly named from the ash-tree; for, accord­ing to the Eddaic mythology, the first man was made of and called Askur, Ash,-a belief similar to that of the Greeks, who held that Zeus created men from ash-trees.