Thomas Ashton and his wives Deborah and Hannah
Thomas Ashton first appeared in the records in Pennsylvania when he married Deborah Baines in the summer of 1701 at Falls Monthly Meeting. Various parents have been proposed for Thomas, but none are known. There is no real evidence to link him to any other Ashton. What is known is that he was a Quaker, probably from northern England where the Ashton name was common.1
His first wife, Deborah Baines, immigrated with her brother Gabriel and mother Ann in 1698.2 They came with a certificate from Settle Monthly Meeting in Yorkshire.3 Gabriel and Deborah were children of Bryan and Ann, of Wennington, Lancashire. Deborah was probably christened about 1660 when the baptismal records of St. Wilfrid’s church are missing.4
Thomas and Deborah were married in 5th month (July) 1701 under the auspices of Falls Monthly Meeting. Gabriel, Thomas and Jennet Baines all signed, while no Ashton signed except for Thomas himself.5 In the marriage record Thomas was described as a husbandman of Falls Township, suggesting that he did not yet own land. In 1703 he requested 100 acres from the commissioners of property. He wanted it to lie between Newtown lots and the back of the lots on the Delaware River.6 It was laid out for him, adjoining Reuben Pownall, Joseph Clows, Thomas Janney and Shadrach Walley.7 In 1708 he got a patent for the land.8
Thomas lived a quiet life in Makefield. He was a constable there for the year starting September 1710.9 He was not active in the Friends Meeting, but he was still a member as late as 1728 when he requested a certificate for himself and his family from Falls to Wrightstown, which was probably closer to their home.10
Thomas and Deborah had two daughters and possibly a son. The daughters were Mary and Ann. The possible son was Isaac. Isaac Ashton was born about 1710 and married Dorothy Carr in 1736. They named two of their children Thomas and Hannah, which could have been for his parents, making him a son of Thomas and his second wife Hannah Hough. But Thomas and Hannah recorded the birth of eight children, not including Isaac. There was sufficient time for him to be an unrecorded son of Thomas and Deborah, born sometime before her death.11
Sometime before 1710 Deborah died, leaving Thomas with two or three small children. In 1710 he remarried, again under the auspices of Falls Meeting. His second wife was Hannah Hough, daughter of John Hough and Hannah Rossell. John and Hannah had emigrated in 1683 and settled in Middletown. The following year John was reprimanded by the Falls Monthly Meeting for fighting and drinking to excess. The Houghs remained members of Falls Meeting.12
Thomas and Hannah would go on to have eight children, whose births were recorded at Falls meeting.13
In 1719 Mary, the oldest daughter of Thomas and Deborah, married Daniel Lee of Makefield. They had two children before her death in 1722 or 1723, possibly in childbirth. The next child of Thomas and Hannah was named Mary, probably to commemorate her.
In 1728 Thomas was in trouble with the monthly meeting and the Bucks County court. In June 1728 he pleaded guilty to an unknown offence and was fined. Several other men were fined at the same time; it may have been fighting or drunkenness or some other relatively minor offence.14 In 7th month 1728, three months later, Friends were appointed to speak with him about “his behavior at Newtown Court some time past”.15 He was not asked to submit a paper of acknowledgement.
1731 was a bad year for Thomas and Hannah. Three of their children died within six weeks, probably of a contagious disease. John died in the middle of December; the baby Martha died two weeks later; William died on February 1.16 There were other deaths at Falls Meeting around that time, but no family was hit as hard as the Ashtons.17
Thomas died in 1733. The inventory of his estate showed a successful farmer, with the usual household furniture and goods, seven horses, nine cows, farm implements, and sixteen acres of wheat in the ground. The bonds, bills and book debts—amount that others owed him—came to over £75, and the total value of the estate was appraised at £207.18 In spite of this abundance, he left Hannah with all eight children unmarried, and some of them under the age of five. It must have been difficult for her. Several of the children died unmarried, and none were known to be married in a Friends meeting. The date of her death is unknown; it was apparently not recorded in Falls or Middletown Meeting.
Of the ten known children of Thomas, only three were sons, and only one of them, Thomas, lived long enough to marry.
Thomas, b. in England, d. 1733, m. 1) 1701 Deborah Bains, 2) 1710 Hannah Hough, daughter of John Hough
Children of Thomas and Deborah:19
Mary, b. 1702, d. before 1723, m. 1st month 1719 Daniel Lee of Makefield, married at Falls MM.20 Daniel was a blacksmith. They had children Deborah and John before Mary died, possibly in childbirth.
Ann, b. 1703, m. 5th month 1726 Thomas Hillborn, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, married at Falls MM.21 They lived in Newtown and had seven known children. Thomas Hillborn died in 1779.
Probable son of Thomas, with either Deborah or Hannah
? Isaac, d. 1750, m. 1736 Dorothy Carr, dau. of John & Mary, lived in Makefield. They were married in New Jersey but made acknowledgment to Wrightstown and continued as members there. They had eight children, naming the first two for her parents and the second two Thomas and Hannah. Isaac died in 1750 and Dorothy married John Balance.
Children of Thomas and Hannah:22
John, b. 2nd month 1711, d. 1731, his death reported at Falls meeting.
Hannah, b. 6th month 1716, possibly died in 1717.23
William, b. 11th month 1718, d. 1731, his death reported at Falls meeting.
Isabel, b. 2nd month 1721, no further records
Mary, b. 6th month 1723, no further records
Thomas, b. 6th month 1726, m. Mary Strickland, dau. of John. John Strickland died in 1766 and in his will named his daughter Mary Ashton; his son-in-law Thomas Ashton was an executor.24 Thomas did not leave a will in Bucks County; the date of his death is not known.
Deborah, b. 9th month 1727, m. ? Wm Waters in 1746 at the Churchville Presbyterian Church
Martha, b. 7th month 1730, d. 1731, her death reported at Falls meeting.
- Some sources claim that his parents were Thomas Ashton and Margaret Hough of Overton, Cheshire who were married in 1661 and who had a son Thomas born in 1665. This is a little too soon for the Thomas who immigrated. He would have been 36 at his first marriage and 65 when his last child was born. Another possibility is the Isaac Ashton who is supposed to have had a large family and died in Philadelphia in 1699. However, that Isaac left a will naming his “intended wife” Elizabeth Richardson, hardly the will of a man with a family. ↩
- Deborah is sometimes described as a daughter of Matthew Baines and Margaret Hatton of Wyresdale, Lancashire, who were married in 1672. Matthew immigrated in 1687 with some of his children, but died on shipboard, and Friends took charge of his two surviving orphan children, William and Ellin. (Davis, History of Bucks County, volume 3, has a detailed story of Matthew and his family.) There are no records that link Deborah with Matthew, Margaret, William or Ellin, while many records link her with the family of Bryan and Ann Baynes of Wennington, Lancashire. ↩
- “Vital Records of Bucks Quarterly Meeting”, Mss. at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a copy of the original record. Also in Watring and Wright, Bucks County Church Records of the 17th and 18th Centuries, vol. 2. ↩
- Register of the Parish Church of Melling, transcribed by Henry Brierley, 1911, online at UK Genealogy Archives. Another brother, Thomas, immigrated with his wife Janet. (Middletown Meeting certificates, in Watring and Wright) Thomas and Deborah were married in 1694; Gabriel and Deborah signed as witnesses. (England and Wales Quaker Birth, Marriage and Death Registers 1578-1837, Yorkshire, Monthly Meeting of Settle, image 281, on Ancestry) ↩
- When Gabriel made his will in 1727 he named his brother Thomas as well as his “cousin” Ann Hillborn and his “cousin Mary Lee’s two children”. Ann and Mary were daughters of his sister Deborah. Terms such as niece were not in use at the time. (Bucks County wills, probate record file #254). ↩
- Minutes of the Board of Property, series 2, p. 390, 3rd month 1703. ↩
- Copied Survey Books, D-72-34, on the website of the Pa Historical and Museum Commission. Davis, in his History of Bucks County, chapter 29, claimed that Thomas and Reuben Ashton each bought 100 acres. This must be a confusion with Reuben Pownall, who is of course no relation to Thomas. ↩
- Minutes of the Board of Property, p. 411. ↩
- Bucks County Court Records to 1730, p. 459, at Historical Society of Pennsylvania. ↩
- Watring & Wright, p. 75. ↩
- However, Deborah was probably born about 1660, and was into her forties before she had her children. Isaac could not plausibly be born much past 1704, if he was her son. ↩
- Falls Monthly Meeting minutes: multiple references between 4th month 1684 and 4th month 1685, when his paper acknowledging his fault was finally accepted and read. ↩
- Falls MM births, deaths and marriages, on Ancestry. ↩
- Bucks County Court records to 1730, p. 526. ↩
- Falls Meeting minutes, Watring & Wright, p. 75. ↩
- Falls MM births, deaths and marriages, on Ancestry, image 205. ↩
- Two other daughters, Isabel and Mary, disappear from the records. They may also have died young, although their deaths were not recorded at Falls. ↩
- Bucks County probate records, file #365. He is not known to have left a will. ↩
- Births recorded at Falls Meeting. Mary and Ann were both remembered in the will of their cousin Gabriel Bains who died in 1727 in Falls Twp. ↩
- She was called “of Makefield” in the marriage record. ↩
- Thomas and Elizabeth were originally from Shrewsbury, New Jersey. ↩
- Isaac is not in the list of births at Falls MM, and could be the son of Joseph Ashton of Lower Dublin, who died in 1751 and named a son Isaac in his will. However, Isaac and Dorothy named two of their children Thomas and Hannah, which seems conclusive. It is also possible that Isaac is the son of Thomas and Deborah, in which case the name Hannah is not accounted for. ↩
- Who was the Hannah Ashton who married David Newburn in New Jersey in 1733 and had eight children with him? They were disowned by Wrightstown Meeting in 1768 because “they had removed from amongst us and buried one of their children at Plumstead and set up a stone at the grave” and when Friends advised them to remove the stone they refused. In fact, Hannah “in an angry Humer,” took their certificate instead of exchanging it for another, as they should have. (Wrightstown Mtg records, 3rd month 1766, (Watring, Early church records of Bucks County, vol. 3). ↩
- Bucks County wills, file #1203. Thomas is sometimes said to have married Rebecca Cotman, but that may be a different Thomas. Of course, it is possible that the marriage to Mary Strickland shown here is in error. ↩
Rebecca Cottman b 1727 m Thomas Ashton Sr b ca 1720, son of Joseph Ashton Jr and his wife Hannah; they lived in Lower Dublin Twp, Philadelphia Co, PA.