The surname Ashley was relatively common in colonial America, making untangling lines difficult. Fortunately DNA testing has shed light on the various Ashley lines of Virginia and North Carolina and has been an enormous aid in determining who is related and who isn't.
Within the borders of old Albemarle County, North Carolina, which now encompasses Perquimans and Chowan counties, three early Ashley progenitors begin appearing in records in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
They are:
Joseph Ashley (d. after 1741) transported to North Carolina in 1693; married Mary __, lived in Chowan County, North Carolina. Had children Joseph and probably Sarah Ashley of Perquimans County; others possible.
Thomas Ashley (d.1760-61) first appears in Chowan County, North Carolina in 1708, died in Bertie County. Married Ann Hicks, had children John and Thomas, others possible.
William Ashley Sr. (d. after 1733) married Eleanor Tyner, daughter of Nicholas Tyner (c.1650-c.1708) by 1711; settled in Chowan County, North Carolina. Had children William and Margaret; others possible.
Despite earlier theories to the contrary, a combination of the Ashley DNA project and documentation has shown us that all three of these colonial lines are very likely unrelated to each other.
We'll go through the documentation for their origins one by one.
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JOSEPH ASHLEY (c.1670-aft.1741)
Joseph Ashley's origins are affirmed by a headright grant to Francis Tomes (1633-1712) of Perquimans County, North Carolina on Jan. 5, 1693: Albemarle Co., NC, Francis Tomes granted headright of 510 acres for transport of Mary Tomes, Mary Fitzgarrett, a servant, Joseph Ashley, Charles, two Indians, three negroes, Elizabeth, a servant.
Since Joseph and these others were imported to live in North Carolina in 1693, they must have been from outside the colony. So where were they from?
The key to the identity of these people is the above Mary Tomes, who is the third wife of Francis Tomes.
The first big clue comes from the will of Francis Tomes, Sr. in Perquimans County, 6 day, 10 month, 1709; it names wife Mary, sons Francis and Joshua, daughter Priscilla Nicholson; daughter Mary married Gabriel Newby, grandson Francis Newby. Witness, Wm. Boyd, Matthew Alberson, John Stepney, and father-in-law John Nicholson.
The second clue is from his wife Mary's will, sealed in March 1713, making bequests to Vesty Lewis, Rachel Laurence, and Elizabeth "daughter of my brother William Nicholson."
So we know she was a daughter of John Nicholson and sister to William Nicholson, the latter of whom died in Currituck, Albemarle County, North Carolina in 1723.
If we can find the origin for John and William Nicholson, then we have a place of origin for Mary Tomes and by extension, Joseph Ashley.
As
it turns out, John and William Nicholson were from right over the
border in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, and are found in records there
between at least 1694 and 1705.
Apr. 20, 1694: William Nicholson witnessed the will of Henry Nicklis (Lower Norfolk Co., VA wills)
May 12, 1696: Theodore Taylor sold a 1686 patent to John Nicholson (Lower Norfolk Co., VA deeds)
[c.1700]: John Nicholson bequeathed land in will of Theodore Taylor, Lower Norfolk Co., VA
Jan. 5, 1705: William Nicholson witnessed the will of Richard Church (Lower Norfolk Co., VA wills)
According to some great research I found online, this is evidently the same Taylor/Nicholson family that appears in Currituck County, North Carolina:
Thomas Taylor was probably living in Currituck Co. by the late 1690s. He was probably the same Thomas Taylor who was granted 1000 acres in Norfolk Co. by Richford Swamp with Thomas Edwards on 20 Oct. 1689... Currituck Co. records show in 1716 "one levie paid for Luke Whit by Mr. Tayler." A Currituck Co. tax list from 1720 whose location was given as Currituck Shoar lists, among others, Thomas Vince, Luke White, William Nicholson, William Bell, and Thomas Taylor, Sr. The facts that Thomas Taylor evidently had owned land on Richford Swamp in Norfolk. Co., and that the White, Taylor and Nicholson names occurred at both Richford Swamp and Currituck Shore seem to show a connection of these families. Also, the fact that Luke White was listed as a headright on a grant to John Manning suppports the idea that the Whites living in Norfolk and Currituck Counties in the 1700's were related to the earlier family of Thomas White.
So it is clear that Mary Nicholson Tomes and Joseph Ashley were from Lower Norfolk County, Virginia. There is an Ashley family there, evidently descended from Dennis Ashley, a transportee to Maryland by 1664 who was granted land in Lower Norfolk with Edward Outlaw in 1677. This makes Dennis the likely father of Joseph Ashley of Perquimans County, North Carolina.
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THOMAS ASHLEY (1682-1760)
Thomas Ashley of Chowan County, North Carolina gave his age in affidavit of 1739 as fifty years:
13
February 1739/40: Thomas Ashley, aged 50 ... deposed that William West
possessed land in the fork of Casshoke Creek since 1718 until his
decease; left by will to Robert West, son of Col. Robert West. signed by
Cullen Pollock. (Source: NCGSJ xii -162 abstract by William Doub
Bennett from Land Grant Record Book 9)
This would place
his birth as 1689 or thereabouts. However, because nothing in colonial
southern genealogy can ever be simple, there is solid evidence that he
was actually born seven years earlier, in 1682.
Thomas is very likely to be the Thomas Ashley who was born on December 3, 1682 in Boston, Massachusetts. The "Book of Eastern Claims" (which contains claims for lands in Maine that had been abandoned decades earlier due to Indian wars) contains a claim by "Mary Spikes of Boston in behalf of her Selfe and Brother Thomas Ashley now of North Carolina and Sister Anna Mansfield of Marblehead" for land on the eastern shore of the Kennebec River in Maine.
Since the claims in the "The Book of Eastern Claims" were filed during 1714-1720, this record definitively places Thomas Ashley, son of Thomas Ashley of Boston, in North Carolina in 1714-1720. In those early days, North Carolina consisted of just seven coastal counties with no other Thomas Ashleys having been recorded, so the Thomas in Chowan County must be the same man.
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WILLIAM ASHLEY (1674?-aft.1733)
It's already well-established that Thomas Ashley came from Boston right around 1708.
William Ashley may have come from Boston as well.
Capt. Edward Ashley of Boston, a mariner, made repeated appearances in Chowan and Perquimans County, North Carolina in the late 17th century. He is known to have been present in the late 1670s and again in the mid-1690s, when he appears in the following court record:
A true and just account of what Vessels has been cleared ye Honble
Dep. Govr. has given Richard Plater a Commission for Compr & Drur
which was in Novr., 1695, as will be made appearing, Dan'l Johnston,
Capt. Ranking, John Truett, Mounr Rathe, Edward Ashley, Xathn Bell, Ross
Bell. In 1696 Abram Dill, Ross Bell, John Blount, Edward Ashley, James
P Kilbrooks, John Triuett, John Gilbert, Rich'd Bently, Abra Lewis, John
Oowley. (Chowan Co., NC Court)
After Edward died around 1698, his widow hired a lawyer in North Carolina, evidently to deal with his affairs in the colony.
***
DNA EVIDENCE
We have Y-DNA tests done for descendants of Benbury Ashley of Chowan County and John Ashley of Anson County, North Carolina that could shed light on who these families are.
John Ashley of Anson is almost certainly from one of these Albemarle County, North Carolina lines. We know from Anson County records he had a (likely) brother named Robert Ashley, who petitioned Anson County court in 1761 that he was aged and infirm and should be exempted from paying taxes. Probably the same Robert Ashley appeared much further east in a 1754 militia roll of Granville County, North Carolina, indicating the Anson Ashleys had likely been part of the Perquimans/Chowan Ashley clans. According to his will, John Ashley's daughter Eleanor married a Sutton, another family from Perquimans that had migrated to Granville County.
John Ashley cannot be a son of Thomas, who had a son named John who was still in
Bertie County in 1761. A theory that can be found online claims he is
"John Plowman Ashley" the above son of Thomas, suggesting that in the
will of John Ashley of Anson County there is named a daughter Mary Ann Franks, with this daughter suggested as the wife of a Joseph Franks who appeared in records with John Plowman Ashley -- this is
false. The name in the will is not Franks but Francis, with the long
letter after the N clearly being a medial S rather than a K. Someone
unfortunately put this erroneous theory on a tombstone, ensuring
confusion will carry on innumerable generations.
John Ashley also cannot be a son of William Ashley Sr. William is proven to be a son-in-law of Nicholas Tyner via a deed in Isle of Wight County, VA in February 1711 which his wife "Elinor" signed and the will of Nicholas Tyner in 1709 which names a daughter Elinor. William had a son named William (c.1712-1782) and spinster granddaughters named Mary and Eleanor via his daughter Margaret. Mary's will was sealed in 1759 and William Jr. was executor; John Jordan provided bond. John Ashley of Anson County named children William, Eleanor and Jordan, possibly for these family members. However, he doesn't really fit into this family chronologically -- it seems that Elinor and William were married between her father's will in 1708 and a deed of 1711; given that John's son John Jr. was already buying land in 1749, and so was born 1728 or earlier, it's quite a squeeze to fit him in here. Furthermore, Y-DNA testing has shown that Jordan Ashley (1737-1817), son of John (d.1759) and Benbury Ashley of Chowan (b.1814), great grandson of William Ashley Jr. (1712-1782), are unrelated.
John Ashley of Anson County, North Carolina's son, Jordan Ashley's descendants appear in GROUP 4 (R-M269), so this is where all John Ashley descendants belong. According to Chase Ashley, the DNA test administrator:
Common ancestry of Group 4 members established; relationship with other members of the project highly unlikely - The results for the members of Group 4 indicate that they all probably share a common male ancestor within the genealogical time frame; however, further genealogical research will be needed to determine the the relationship between the group's members. The results also indicate that it is highly unlikely that any member of Group 4 is has a common male ancestor with any project member outside of Group 4 within the genealogical time frame (15 generations). The closest any kit in Group 4 comes to any kit in the project outside of Group 4 is a genetic distance of 13 on a comparison of 37, while a genetic distance of 6 on a comparison of 37 is enough to make it highly unlikely that test takers share a common ancestor within the genealogical time frame.
GROUP 4 is unrelated to:
John Ashley of Mecklenburg Co., NC b. 1755
"Papa John" Ashley of Coffee Co., TN, b.1752
Thomas Ashley of Lancaster Co., VA b.1660
"James Jordan Ashley" of SC b. 1780 (fake middle name suspected)
Joseph Ashley (c.1675-1757) of Rochester, MA
Robert Ashley b.1797 SC
Thomas Atchley (1695-1775) of UK
Phillip Ashley of Shropshire, UK
Edward Ashley b.1652 of Somerset, UK
John Astley of Wellington, Shropshire, UK
Benbury Ashley b.1814 of Chowan Co., NC
Moses Ashley b.1801 of Abbeville Co. SC (Kent, MD line)
All Ashleys of Kent, MD
Robert Ashley of Orange Co., NC
This basically eliminates John's potential descent from almost every other Ashley family during the colonial period, including the Kent County, Maryland, Lancaster County, Virginia and Orange County, North Carolina families.
Benbury Ashley of Chowan County, North Carolina b. 1814 is haplogroup R-BY73511 and matches only to a descendant of Thomas Atchley (1695-1775). (Group 9).
This means Benbury Ashley of Chowan cannot be related to John Ashley of Anson County, North Carolina.
Benbury Ashley appears in Edenton, North Carolina in the 1850 census near Baker Ashley, Anna Ashley, Delia Ashley, Elizabeth Ashley, Mary Ashley, Mead Ashley, Miles Ashley, Richard Ashley and Sarah Ashley.
More specifically, in 1850 Baker Ashley, who is next door to Benbury Ashley, has a "Nancy Deverson" in his household, age 64 (b.1786) -- this is Nancy Bacchus, widow of Mead Ashley Jr. (m.1808), who remarried to Isaac Daverson Feb. 26, 1835 (per Chowan County marriage bonds). Mead's father, also named Mead Ashley (bef.1757-1814), was named in the will of William Ashley Jr. (c.1712-1782) finalizing that Benbury is a descendant of William Ashley and Elinor Tyner. Because of the Y-DNA discrepancy, this eliminates the possibility that John Ashley of Anson is a descendant of William Ashley Sr. (1674?-aft.1733) of Chowan.
Mead Ashley's children were according to his 1818 estate papers: William Ashley, Mead Ashley, Sarah Stacey, Elizabeth Stacey (m. Wm. Stacy 1791), Margaret Stacey, Mary Stacey, Deborah Stacey, John Stacey, Jonathan Ashley, Milley Ashley, Sally Ashley, Edy Ashley and John Davison.
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CONCLUSION
John Ashley of Anson County, North Carolina cannot be a son of William Ashley of Chowan County, because William's descendants are haplogroup R-BY73511 and John's are R-M269.
John Ashley can't be a son of Thomas Ashley, because he had a son named John Ashley who administered his estate in 1761 in Bertie County, North Carolina, more than a decade after John Ashley of Anson had left the North Carolina shore and moved hundreds of miles to the western part of the state.
By elimination, he has to be a son of Joseph Ashley of Chowan County.
This places Joseph in haplogroup R-M269, William in R-BY73511 and Thomas, unknown.
So it appears that William and Joseph Ashley of Chowan County are unrelated, despite appearing in a document together.
This also means John Ashley is a likely descendant of the immigrant Dennis Ashley of Virginia.
Special thanks to the research of Chase Ashley, Kevin Ashley and Mike Ashley, who have spent countless years documenting and analyzing volumes of colonial evidence. Though I have drawn heavily on their research, this conclusion about John Ashley is my own. I am always open to discussion and debate.
=JMF
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