Col. Peter Ashton - Looks like the Colonel was childless

Started by Private User on Sunday, July 7, 2019
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It looks like there’s more than one Captain John. Scandalous Charles can't be the father of Captain John of Westmoreland County, but he can't be ruled out as the father of a different one. Page 153 of https://www.jstor.org/stable/1915677?read-now=1&refreqid=excels...
John Ashton son of scandalous Charles petitions the court to divide his father’s estate…. “This John might possibly be the Captain John Ashton to whom John Aston of Stafford County left 20 shillings in his will dated September 6, 1682. It is certain this will could not have referred to Captain John Ashton of Westmoreland County who had been dead about five years when it was drawn up.”

The next page goes on to talk about “who the heck was Grace Ashton?” The 'wrong' Captain John Ashton's wife was named Grace. That wasn't a super-popular name in those days, so it seems kind of unlikely that John Ashton son of Scandalous Charles would also have a wife named Grace.

Very nice ! And we’re clear as mud !!!

Grace Meese seems part of the John / James / Peter crowd, right ?

I think her Geni parents are time & place travelers. Found this record:

Judge Philander Muse
Marriage
1880 • Texas, United States
Belle Peabody

So I’ll start with cutting them loose from Grace, and then I’ll see if I can unmerge earlier Peter from Col Peter.

Can we Identity any other will people besides Richard Elkins ?

Rev. Walter Ashton, Vicar of Sutterton

James, John, Peter & Miss Ashton now attached as children of Walter. See how that plays. He’s a little old for the role, & the pedigree only has a Peter, living in 1628, as his son. We should also consider that Col Peter is now placed correctly & its the others who are somehow cousins.

I’m progressing on to Grace Muses husbands.

And check this out

https://www.geni.com/photo/view/6000000082255300836?album_type=phot...

Has Grace married to John d 1677 son of Charles ....

Easier to read Ashton pedigree

===References
*Lincolnshire Pedigrees: Supplement By Arthur Staunton Larken Page 1139 [https://books.google.com/books?id=AqRCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1139&lp... GoogleBooks]

I’m not crazy about the three brothers as sons of Rev Walter, why is only one child listed, then ?

I haven't looked too hard at Grace, but if the Jstor article is right it looks more like she belongs with the Westmoreland County Ashtons, aka the Captain John who definitely doesn't belong with Charles or with Peter, John and James. It's quite emphatic that the older Captain John had a widow named Grace, and it seems unlikely that there would be two Captain John Ashtons who weren't particularly connected to each other that each had a wife named Grace. But they seem to think it's more likely that her maiden name was Frizer, and says "The claim that Grace was a daughter of Henry Meese appears to rest on no surer foundation than that the records show the gift of a mare by Henry Meese in 1670 to Mary, daughter of John and Grace Ashton, and gains its principal support in an effort to account for the name Henry which persists in one line of Captain John's descent." There's also an argument that she might be the daughter of William Smith.

I get the impression that the parents of Peter et al aren't actually known. I did some looking for parents earlier tonight and didn't find anyone convincing. It's not even certain that they're really connected to the Ashtons or Asshetons of Chadderton (as it's spelled in England), although it's certainly suggestive that Peter called his plantation Chatterton. Some sources say they're a subsidiary branch of that family that's actually from Spaulding, not Chadderton itself.

Some sources say his parents were John Ashton and Rose Tarleton, for example: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LKQT-ZLY which has a christening record from 1614 showing that there was a John Ashton with a son named Peter. This John Ashton was the son of Walter Aston Jr, who was the son of Sir Walter Aston. It's possible, and it's pretty obvious that Peter and company came from an important family. But the evidence doesn't look strong to me.

From http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/ashton/1742/

“Suggest you search this forum for postings by Lou Poole. She has found records of Captain John Ashton and Grace in Warwick County, Virginia, as early as 1650, which cast doubt on her identity as a daughter of Col. Henry Meese. It seems that she was previously married to William Best of Warwick County; and that she married Captain John Ashton, in 1651, after the death of William Best, in 1650. Captain John Ashton was an attorney and was closely involved with the Dade Family, who muved to the Northern Neck of Virginia about the same time (1662-1664) as the Ashtons. It may be possible to trace Captain John Ashton further through some of these connections“

Ashton’s of Virginia family ready for more notes

John Ashton

I’m kind of feeling Scandalous Charles does belong here. His son John Ashton is mentioned in John Ashton’s will:

PATENT BOOK, 2, 1666/1695, BOOK 6, pp. 211/212:
5200 JOHN ASHTON, Will probated Stafford County, 26 Jan. 1682(83), and willed land he inherited from Col. Peter Ashton to James Ashton, their brother. He was formerly of Lowth (Louth). John Ashton's wife's name was Elizabeth and Capt. John Ashton, probably a son. JAMES ASHTON, died, Stafford County, formerly of Kirby-Underwood, Lincolnshire. His Will, dated 18 Aug. 1686 (87), names RICHARD ELKINS, John Ashton, son of Charles Ashton, Justice of Peace, and Col. Peter Ashton, Sheriff of Northumberland Co.,, Virginia. James Ashton had Godchildren: RICHARD ELKIN, Sarah Mattershead, Miss Rosier, daughter of John Rosier, and Elizabeth Sebastian, and willed RICHARD ELKINS 100 acres of his land. The Estate "Chatterton" King George, Virginia., now belongs to a Tayloe family.

I’m also wondering if the Ashton’s came via Barbados. Francis Mary Elkins oldest child born there supposedly:

https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I0239...

MARRIAGE: Marriage 1 Ralph ELKINS . b: ABT 1636 in England

CHILDREN: Children
Elizabeth ELKINS b: in Barbados
Richard ELKINS I. b: ABT 1669 in Dorset, Dorsetshire, England
John ELKINS b: CIR 1674
Ralph ELKIN II. b: ABT 1680 in VA
Nathaniel ELKINS I. b: ABT 1683

This is an interesting record, I’ll try & get the image.

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J9YP-NJ8 : 12 February 2018, John Asheton in entry for Peter Asheton, ); citing item 6, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,545,656.

And this sure could have been Mary Francis, but why wouldn’t she have been mentioned in his estate ? Oh. She died before him. :). And I’m back to god child = grand child. :)

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWDQ-XYT : 11 February 2018, Peter Ashton in entry for ... Ashton, 19 Jul 1640); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 0844813 IT 2.

But if he’s the Peter son of John b 1605, James, John & maybe Charles are nephews perhaps.

Grace Ashton, wife of Captain John cannot be the daughter of Henry Meese. He didn't even come to America until about 1655 - and he came to Maryland, not Virginia. He didn't get to Virginia until the 1660's. There is no record anywhere of a marriage or children in England before he returned there after his American adventures. There is no evidence that Grace is the daughter of William Frizer. He left his estate to her and her children in his will but if they were relatives, why wouldn't he have said so? People often died in early colonial Virginia without any blood relatives there and they left their estates to friends and neighbors rather than let it all revert to the government.

Re this statement: ". His Will, dated 18 Aug. 1686 (87), names RICHARD ELKINS, John Ashton, son of Charles Ashton, Justice of Peace, and Col. Peter Ashton, Sheriff of Northumberland Co" Brother John's will does not actually talk about John Ashton son of Charles Ashton. He leaves 20 shilling to Captain John Ashton but doesn't talk about the Captain's relationship to anyone. Some sources assume that the Captain is the son of Charles while others assume that he's the son of Brother John, but I haven't seen any direct evidence for who he is. For all I know, it might have been Captain John of Westmoreland County who could have been a cousin or something, and Brother John was old and sick enough to forget that the Captain had died five years earlier.

https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I0239...
"Wills of Rappahannock County, Virginia, 1658-1692
Wills in the Record Book entitled
Deeds, &c., No. 6, 1682.1686.
ASHTON, JOHN, of Stafford County,
Dated 1675, Sworn to 6th die Aug 1682, Probated 26 January, 1682/3
To loving wife Elizabeth if she will come and live here all my whole estate both personall and real during her life but if she will not then I doe bind over my Estate to pay her twenty pounds Ster. p. year or one hundred and fifty Ster. which she would rather have. To Thomas Bunbery and his wife five pounds Ster. To Capt. John Aston twenty shillings. I doe make my Brother James Ashton my whole Executor and the heires of his body forever but in Case he have none then after his decease to my Couzen John Ashton of Russell Street at the Adam and Eve in London and to his heires forever.
Wit. DOMINICK RICE, ROBERT MASSESE. Page 1."

I've seen the bit about one of the Elkins children being born in Barbados but I don't believe it. I haven't seen any evidence for it, or that the family ever made a stop in Barbados. It's more likely that it's a wrong connection.

You can view the christening record at https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LKQT-ZLY It's the first of the three sources. Personally I don't have enough ambition to slog through all that old-style handwriting to figure out where it is on the page. According to the transcript, all it says is that Peter Asheton the son of John Asheton was christened on 8/21/1614 in Middleton, Lancashire. There were lots of Ashtons in Lancashire, and they were apparently fond of the names Peter and John, so this doesn't prove anything.

Re the christening record at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWDQ-XYT This is apparently where the 1640 birthdate assigned to Mary Francis came from. It can't be her though, because Peter Ashton has no known descendants and she does. I'm one of them lol.

Peter died between 1669-1671. Mary's oldest son Richard Elkins has an assigned birthdate of 1669 and he lived to adulthood, so at least one of them had to be alive when Peter's will was written in 1669. But neither of them are mentioned in Peter's will. The will of Mary's husband Ralph Elkins was written in 1690 and states that there are several minor children, who were obviously born after 1669. So for Mary Francis to be a daughter who predeceased her father Peter, we would have to invent a second wife for Ralph Elkins who has never been mentioned anywhere, in order to give the minor children a mother.

I'm thinking that Mary looks less promising as a sister, and more promising as somebody's daughter, with Charles being the most realistic candidate that we have. Now that I know where the 1640 birthdate came from, it looks mighty shaky. If that was her birthdate, she would have been 29 when her oldest child Richard Elkins was born in 1669, which was pretty old for those days. Richard might actually have been born earlier than that; I haven't seen any evidence for his birthdate, but the father's will indicates that he was a legal adult in 1690, so he couldn't have been born any later than 1669. It looks like all the other children were minors in 1690, and Mary was already dead at that point.

It looks like the only evidence for Elizabeth Elkins born in Barbados is that a family tree on Ancestry.com said it was true. I don't have a subscription to Ancestry, but this tree on FamilySearch gives her a birthdate of 1682: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3NMZ-Z5M Which means that the family would have had to take a cruise to Barbados after their other children were born, then go back to Virginia by 1690 so father Ralph Elkins could die there.

Here's an interesting genealogy of the Elkins family, starting on page 210. I can't say that it actually looks right: http://www.tuckerfamilytree.info/uploads/Privatized_Gen_P_Jan_18_20...
It says that Ralph Elkins had two wives. The first was Living Ashton and the second was Mary Ashton (apparently "Living" is the name they assign to everyone whose real name is unknown). He had four children with Living between 1662 and 1680, and three with Mary between 1650 and 1672, so he must have been married to both of them at the same time for at least 10 years. Daughter Elizabeth was born in Virginia but died in Barbados in 1752 at the age of 102.

https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=sljuhl1234&am... says that Elizabeth Elkin, spinster, willed her estate to her brother John Elkin AUG 1752 in Barbados. This is apparently where the idea of a Barbados-born Elizabeth came from.

I can't view the records, but the Ancestry search results say she was born in Barbados in 1677 and died there in 1752: https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/elizabeth-elkins_37293070 This suggests that the family left her behind when they moved back to Virginia.

None of it makes any sense, obviously.

Trying to identify the god children :

PATENT BOOK, 2, 1666/1695, BOOK 6, pp. 211/212:

5200 JOHN ASHTON, Will probated Stafford County, 26 Jan. 1682(83), and willed land he inherited from Col. Peter Ashton to James Ashton, their brother. He was formerly of Lowth (Louth). John Ashton's wife's name was Elizabeth and Capt. John Ashton, probably a son. JAMES ASHTON, died, Stafford County, formerly of Kirby-Underwood, Lincolnshire. His Will, dated 18 Aug. 1686 (87), names RICHARD ELKINS, John Ashton, son of Charles Ashton, Justice of Peace, and Col. Peter Ashton, Sheriff of Northumberland Co.,, Virginia. James Ashton had Godchildren: RICHARD ELKIN, Sarah Mottershead, Miss Rosier, daughter of John Rosier, and Elizabeth Sebastian, and willed RICHARD ELKINS 100 acres of his land. The Estate "Chatterton" King George, Virginia., now belongs to a Tayloe family.

===

This Elizabeth Leftwich

Here's the actual text of James' will from https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=sljuhl1234&am...

""JAMES ASHTON, of Stafford county, Virginia, gentleman. Will dated 18 August, 1686; proved 8 September, 1686, in County Court; proved 14 July, 1687, in Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Cosen JOHN ASHTON, Haberdasher in Rustall Street, Convent Garden, London, that seat or tract of land, undisposed, which formerly belonged to my brother, JOHN ASHTON, Cosen JOHN FOSTER, of Worzbridge, Cambridgeshire, gentleman, that Plantation called Chatterton on the Riverside, and that tract of land belonging to my 550 acres. Godchildren SARAH MATTERSHED, RICH: ELKIN, ELIZ: SABASTIAN and JOHN ROSIER'S daughter, each a heifer with a calf by her side. ROSE FITZHUGH, daughter of Col. WILLIAM FITZHUGH, two heifers and two calves. WILLIAM KING and his wife two heifers and two calves. WILLIAM KING to be employed on the plantation where I live. JOHN HARVEY two heifers and two calves. SAMUEL HAYWOOD, ditto. RICH: ELKIN 100 acres of land adjoining upon JOHN GRIGSBY of the 1/4 Divdt. WILLIAM (pg. 120) FITZHUGH, SAMUEL HAYWARD, and JOHN HARVEY, executors in trust. Freight taken for me by Mr. THOMAS STORKE of London, merchant. SARAH FERMER, now servant, a heifer when free. JOHN ASHTON and JOHN FOSTER, executors. To Dr. WILLIAM BANKS 20s. to buy him a ring. Others...etc...""

The notes on Richard Elkin's profile say "Don't believe Richard was born in England as his father was the immigrant and arrived in Virginia in 1657"

Actually I do believe he was born in England. Reasoning:
1. Richard had to be born in 1669 or earlier in order for him to be at least 21 in 1690 when his father's will was written.
2. I can't find the actual text of Colonel Peter's will, but it's reported that John and James were still living in England when the will was written in 1669.
3. James is Richard's godfather. I don't fully understand how the whole godfather thing works, but it's my understanding that you want someone who's reasonably accessible. Picking a godfather on the other side of the ocean wouldn't be very practical.
4. Therefore Richard was probably born in England.

Elkins is a common name, so it's possible that the Ralph Elkins who arrived in 1657 was someone else. Or maybe it was the same guy, and he was rich and adventurous enough to spend a few years dividing his time between England and Virginia. The Ashtons were an important family, so Elkins probably wasn't a pauper.

The 100 acre gift is interesting, the other godchildren get cattle only; they seem to be Stafford County Neighbors. 100 acres of “extra” land to a nephew / great nephew sounds reasonable.

Presumably this is the same William Fitzhugh who was the executor of James Ashton's will. There's a collection of his letters on jstor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241816?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents The one with an ambiguous mention of a sister who might or might not belong to James Ashton starts on page 261

Notice that Fitzhugh refers to James as "Major Ashton". A lot of people in that family had military titles.

Probably the best thing to do with Mary Francis is to leave her as a sister. I suspect that her birthdate was actually sometime between 1640-1650, and she's probably a daughter of a family member rather than a sister. Her parents might be someone who never left England, for example Cozen John the Haberdasher. But I don't think we'll find out who her parents really were, and she really does seem to be a member of this family. It's reasonable to call her a sister with notes stating that we're not really sure about her exact relationship to her "brothers".

There’s this marriage to chase up

Elizabeth Ashton

Fits with younger half sister theory.

I've seen that name before! Some sources say that John Ashton and Rose Elisabeth Tarleton were the parents of Peter Ashton, while others say it was Walter Ashton and whoever he was married to.

I'm looking for more info on Scandalous Charles and found something that's kind of off topic but fun. Charles' widow Isabelle married Dominic Rice as her second husband, and he got into plenty of trouble with Bacon's Rebellion.

https://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&a...
LAWS OF VIRGINIA, FEBRUARY, 1676-7---29th CHARLES II.
page 379
"and be it further enacted by this present grand assembly and by the authority thereof, and it is hereby enacted, that Richard Tomson and Dominick Rice, and either of them doe upon their bended knees, with ropes about their necks, acknowledge their treasons and rebellions in Northumberland county court, and be comitted to safe prison untill they shall procure good security for their future good behaviour."

- RICE's Recognizance
Whereas I DOMINICK RICE have been most villaniously and notoriously active in ye late hrrid rebellion craised on foot by NATHANIELL BACON ye Younger to ye great contempt of ye known Laws of England and of this Collony, and ye breaking of ye peace and safety of this Collony of Virginia and his Majesties leige people within the same and to the evill example of my fellow subjects, Now I DOMINICK RICE doe humbly and heartily pentitently confess and acknowledge my horrid villanious rebellious and unreasonable practice and humbly heartily and unfeignedly [in obedience to an act of mercy at ye last Assembly] beg pardon of Almighty God, the King's most excellent Majestie ye most learned and all other subordinates officers others my fellow subjects within this Collony for such my horrid treasons and rebellion, and doe fully and absolutely resolve with myselfe [humbly designe with assistance from God Almighty] never more to committ perpetrate contemptuously or by any wayes or meanes to be assisting or adhereing to the like and doe designe this Recognizance may be recorded
God save ye King DOM: RICE

- RICE's Bond DOMINICK RICE, JAMES CRANE and RICHARD RICE doe oblige themselves in ye penall sume of one hundred pounds sterling that DOMINICK RICE shall be of good behaviour towards his Majestie as all his leige people and that DOMINICK RICE shall from Court to Court each Court held for this County make his personall appearance until by the Court he shall be discharged from his Obligation

Looks like Isabelle liked the bad boys lol.

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