[1][2] Atherton first comes to notice in 1536, when he was under the employ of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby during the expedition against the rebels in the north, known as the pilgrimage of Grace.
During September that year, he led a number of his tenants to join the Earl of Derby's forces against the Scots.
[4] His second wife, Margaret was a known recusant, and this led to suspicions on matters of his faith, which eventually curtailed his political career at the start of the reign of Elizabeth I, with the Act of Uniformity 1558.
[3] He was the firstborn son of George Atherton by his 1st wife Anne, daughter of Richard Assheton of Middleton, Lancashire.
[5] He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Alexander Radcliffe or Ratcliffe of Ordsall when they were both children.