Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village was once owned by Edmund Hastings of Plumtree, Nottinghamshire, who had inherited it from his wife Copley's Sprotborough family.
In 1637, Edmund Hastings Esq., a descendant, had extensive property dealings with John Levett, a York barrister, who had married Hastings's wife's Copley family niece.
The first Act of Parliament was presented in 1698 by the MP for Thirsk, Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprotborough, representing the interests of Rotherham.
Sir | Sir Walter Scott | baronet | Baronet | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Arthur Godfrey | Sir Robert Peel | Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond | Godfrey Kneller | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | 2nd United States Congress | Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet | Michigan's 2nd congressional district | Charles Godfrey Leland | 2nd | William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne | William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne | Sir Raylton Dixon | Sir Harold Hillier Gardens | Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet | John Singleton Copley | Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland | Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet | Godfrey of Bouillon | George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham | Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet | Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington | Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild |
In 2002 Sir Derek Bibby, 2nd baronet, and great-great-grandson of the founder and past chairman and president of the firm, was aged 80 and terminally ill with leukemia.