Jane (Unknown) Ashley (abt. 1630 - aft. 1671)

Born about 1630 in England [uncertain]

Wife of John Ashley — married about 1650 in Province of Maryland [uncertain]

Died after 1671 after about age 41 in Lancaster County, Virginia Colony

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Biography

Jane (Unknown) Ashley was a Maryland colonist.

This profile is for the wife of John Ashley of Lancaster County, Virginia.

First Name

The first name of the wife of John Ashley of Lancaster was Jane. That fact is establish by a record for the sale of land by John Ashley to Robert Griggs/Briggs on June 17, 1671, which is followed by a record for a power of attorney by Jane Ashley to Hugh Brant/Brent dated July 7, 1671 to acknowledge the sale to Griggs/Briggs.^[1];^[2][3][4]

Disputed Maiden Name: Cooper

According to certain versions of The Legend of the Ashley Brothers, John of Lancaster married a woman called Lady Jane Cooper. There seems to be no reliable evidence, however, that establishes what Jane's maiden name was, see below for further discussion on this point.

The entry for Jane's power of attorney in ^[3] states that the power of attorney was given by "Jane Cooper Ashley." However, it is highly unlikely that such a document would list her maiden name and therefore more likely that Ron or someone else had added the "Cooper." The probability that the original record does not include the name "Cooper" is strongly supported by the fact that the description of the power of attorney in Duvall's "Lancaster County, Virginia Court Orders & Deeds 1656-1680,"^[1] in E.W. Dehuff's "The Ashley Family,"^[2] and on the Ashley Families USA & Around the World Website all simply say that "Jane Ashley" gave the power of attorney, with no mention of "Cooper."

A record in Yates Publishing's "U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900" also states that a John Ashley (b. 1625) married a Jane Cooper.^[5] However, Yates's records are not reliable and are based, in part, on undocumented family trees. It is therefore possible that the Yates' record merely reflects Ashley family trees that show that John of Lancaster married Jane Cooper, rather than providing any independent evidence in support of that proposition.

Refuted Parentage: Daughter of Sir John Cooper

Even if Jane's maiden was Cooper, she was almost certainly not the daughter of Sir John Cooper. There is no evidence that Sir John Cooper had a daughter named Jane. According to reliable sources, John Cooper's only surviving daughter was Phillippa Cooper who married Sir Adam Browne.^[6][7]

Refuted Origins: Jane Cooper of Barbados

There is a record of a Jane Cooper who was transported to Barbados in 1666.^[8];^[9] Based both on the date of her transport to Barbados and the fact that that Jane Cooper went to Barbados as an indentured servant, however, there is no possibility that Jane of Barbados was the Jane who was John of Lancaster's wife.

Date and Place of Birth

Jane's date and place of birth are unknown. Based on her husband's estimated date of birth (sometime in 1600-1629), she was probably born sometime in 1600-1634, with about 1625 being a reasonable midpoint estimate. She was most probably born in England.

Marriage

The date and location of Jane and John's marriage is uncertain. Based on his estimated date of birth (sometime in 1600-1629), they were probably married sometime in 1621-1660, with about 1645-55 being perhaps most likely. Depending on when they were married, they may have been married in England, Maryland or Virginia. If they were married about 1650, they probably got married in Maryland before moving to Virginia.

Children

As discussed in the bio for her husband, while many families trees show that Jane and John Ashley of Lancaster were the parents of Isaac Ashley of Kent County, Maryland and Thomas Ashley, Sr. of Bertie County, North Carolina (or that Thomas's father), there is little evidence supporting those propositions and both should be considered speculative at best. No reliable records or evidence establish who the children (if any) of Jane and John Ashley of Lancaster were.

Death

Based on the fact that she signed a power of attorney in 1671, she died sometime after that date, most likely in Virginia.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Lindsay O. Duvall, "Lancaster County, Virginia Court Orders & Deeds 1656-1680," Southern Historical Press, 1979, p 47
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} E.W. DeHuff, "The Ashley Family," 1962, p 2
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Ron Blevins' Chronology of Southern Ashley Records 1621-1820
4. ↑ "Ashley Lands," Ashley Families USA & Around the World Website
5. ↑ Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
6. ↑ Brydges, Sir Egerton, Collins's Peerage of England: Genealogical, biographical and historical, greatly augmented and continued to the present time, vol. 3, London" FC & J Rivington, 1812. Digitised by Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/collinsspeerageo03coll : viewed 24 October 2015).
7. ↑ William Dougal Christie, "Memoirs, Letters, and Speeches of Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Chancellor," 1859, p 5
8. ↑ Servants to Foreign Plantations 1663-1679 from Port of Bristol, www.virtualjamestown.org
9. ↑ Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988, p 220