First found in Chester, modernly known as Cheshire. They are a family of great antiquity in that county, and held estates at Aldersey and Spurstow from about the 11th century. They also held estates at Bunbury and Peel Hall in the parish of Tarvin.

To escape the unstable social climate in England of this time, many families boarded ships for the New World with the hope of finding land, opportunity, and greater religious and political freedom. Although the voyages were expensive, crowded, and difficult, those families that arrived often found greater opportunities and freedoms than they could have experienced at home. Many of those families went on to make significant contributions to the rapidly developing colonies in which they settled. Early North American records indicate many people bearing the name Eldershaw were among those contributors: Grace Aldersey, who settled in Virginia in 1646; Stephen Aldersea who arrived in Maryland in 1724; and John Aldersey, who settled in Boston in 1820.

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