Descendants of John Ashcom (1615-1684) In this record, persons are numbered consecutively. If they married and are known to have children, there is a plus sign (+) in front of their name, which indicates that additional information about them can be found in the next generation. I am solely responsible for all errors in this record. Corrections and additions are appreciated. Stephen W. Johnson 222 Parkman Ave. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 [email protected] September 12, 2013 Descendants of John ASHCOM 12 September 2013 First Generation 1. ASHCOM was born (date unknown). The name Ashcom (and its variants--Ascham, Askham, Ashcomb, Ashcombe, etc.) may either (i) be derived from the villages of East Ascham and West Ascham in Yorkshire, England, or (ii) be a be a compound derivation of "ash," as in the tree, and "comb," which is common word for valley in southeast England. A Roger de Askam is mentioned as early as 1313. Hammond Askham was Master of Balliol College, Oxford in 1317 and resided in Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire, England. William Askham was Yoeman of York in 1390. William Askham was Lord Mayor of London in 1403. Walter ASkham was Sargeant at Law in 1510. A Roger Ascham, born 1515, was educated at St. John's College, receiving a B.A. Degree on February 18, 1533. He was admitted to fellowship at St. John's on March 23, 1533, where he was a scholar of Greek and Latin and an accomplished musician. He was know for his beautiful handwriting. He was the author of a number of books and treatises, including, in 1544, a famous treatise on archery and, between 1563 and 1568, his famous "Scholemaster." He became an orator at the Universtiy of Cambridge. Then, in July 1548 he became tutor to Princess Elizabeth. In 1553, he became Latin Secretary to Queen Mary. He married margaret Howe, a niece of Sir Henry Wallop on January 1, 1554. For his service to the Queen, he obtained a grant of Salisbury Hall at Walthamstow, Essex in 1567. A month before he died, he sat up nights to complete a Latin poem which he desired to present to eh Queen on November 17--the anniversary of her accession. He died on December 30, 1568, of a "wasting disease." On hearing of his death, Qeen Elizabeth is reported to have exclaimed that she "would rather have cast L10,000 into the sea, than to have lost her Ashcam." Scholars in England and on the Continent expressed their grief at his death by composing Latin verses to his memory. ASHCOM had the following child: +2 i. John ASHCOM, born 1615, Sutton Courtney (Berkshire), England; married Winifred UNKNOWN, about 1640, Berkshire, England; died August 31, 1684, Point Patience, Calvert Co., Maryland. Second Generation 2. John ASHCOM was born in 1615 in Sutton Courtney (Berkshire), England. According to family historian Robert Ashcom, John was born in Sutton Courtney, England. According to family historian Mrs. J. Dawson Reeder beginning in 1952 and Areta Blake, Provo, UT, John was born in Berkshire, England. He died on August 31, 1684 at the age of 69 in Point Patience, Calvert Co., Maryland. Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607, was the first permanent English settlement in North America. , Originally also called "James Towne" or "Jamestowne", it is located on the James River in what is currently James City County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The site is about 40 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and about 45 miles downstream and southeast of the current state capital city of Richmond. Both the river and the settlement were named after King James I of England, who was on the throne at the time, granted the private proprietorship to the Virginia Company of London. In 1622, the Algonquian Indians attacked the out plantations killing over 300 of the settlers. Even though a last 2 Descendants of John ASHCOM 12 September 2013 minute warning spared Jamestown, the attack on the colony and mismanagement of the Virginia Company at home convinced the King that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter. Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. After the attack, a census of all the living inhabitants of Jamestown was conducted. This census became known as the Muster of 1624/25. A John Askume, age 22, is shown in the Muster as living in Accomack County in the Eastern Shore of Virginia, having arrived in 1624 aboard the ship The Charles. Thus, John possibly arrived in Jamestown, Virginia as early as 1624. That this is the John with whom we are concerned here, needs to be confirmed. In any event, he seems to have been a landowner in Virginia before ultmately moving to Maryland with his wife and three sons in about 1651. According to "Cavaliers and Pioneers; Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623-1666", Nugent, Nell Marion Genealogical Publishing Co. (1974) (page 165), John was granted land in Upper Norfolk Co. in March 1638: [Patent Book No.2] John Ashcomb, 829 acs., Up. Norf. Co., Oct. 7, 1646, Page 83. Beg. at miles end of Michael Wilcox, adj. land of George White, E. to a place called Newgate, to Laughleys Cr. belonging to the Wwd. br. of Elizabeth River. 250 acres due by virtue of the rights of a patent granted sd. Ashcomb Mar. 6, 1638, which patent is surren- dered, & 600 acres for trans. of 12 pers: John Ashcomb, Winifred Ashcomb, John Ashcomb, Junr., Wm. Lasher, Richard Galloway, James Goodcross, Madelow (or Madelene) Powell, Henry Jones, Edward Wood, Martha Lylls, Elizabeth Coram, John Moore, Winefrid Jones, Tho. Salsberry, Gilbert Lake, Edward Prince, Mary Gallaway." Cited at: http://users.ticnet.com/stevem/p1bk10.htm (April 20, 2002). In 1637, the House of Burgesses had divided New Norfolk County into Upper Norfolk County and Lower Norfolk County. Upper Norfolk County was renamed Nansemond County in 1646. Nansemond County was later incorporated into the City of Suffolk. According to family historian Mrs. J. Dawson Reeder (without citing any source), John Ashcom was an extensive landowner in Maryland in 1643. He came from Berkshire, England with his wife Winifred, four sons, two relatives and, in 1650 and 1651, six servants (Alexandre, Mathoda, Will Gibbins, Guy Edward Wood, Witt Ward and Joan). For this, on July 2, 1649, Lord Baltimore granted John land at the mouth of the Patuxant River: 360 acres known as Pt. Patience in St. Mary's Co., named and recorded August 6, 1651 (1661?); 650 acres known as West Ashcom (on the west side of the Patuxant River) in St. Mary's Co., surveyed June (July?) 17, 1652; and 200 (440?) acres known as East Ashcom or Hallowing Point (on the east side of the Patuxant River) in Calvert, Co., surveyed April 21, 1653. (Mrs. Reeder's account filed with the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. states that the grant was made in 1658.) The East Ashcom and West Aschom estates were apparently named after the villages of his home, near York, England. John's will, which is recorded in the Maryland Land Office in Annapolis, MD, was probated on July 16 and August 31, 1684. It provided that West Ashcom would be left to his son Charles "if he should come into the Province." Charles, was at the time, apparently in Pennsylvania, serving under William Penn as the Deputy Surveyor for Chester Co. According to family historian Robert Ashcom, John Ashcom came to America in approximately 1635 from Sutton Courtney, England. He received a land grant in Norfolk, Va., then he and his children moved to St. Mary's, Md. where they obtained several land grants at the mouth of the Chesapeake. EARLY MARYLAND HISTORY In 1498, John Cabot sailed along Eastern Shore off present-day Worcester County and in 1608, Capt. John Smith explored Chesapeake Bay. In 1629, George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, left Avalon in Newfoundland, and visited Virginia. St. Mary's City is the site of the first settlement in Maryland and the first seat of colonial government. The Society 3 Descendants of John ASHCOM 12 September 2013 of Jesus (Jesuits) established one of the earliest manors in the new colony at St. Inigoes soon after St. Mary's City was founded. In many regards, the early history of the colony is the history of St. Mary's County, and the Jesuit Manor played a prominent role in that history. In 1632, the first Lord Baltimore, Sir George Calvert, began procedures to acquire a charter for lands in the Chesapeake Bay region. He died before King Charles I and the privy council had completed the arrangements, and it fell to Sir George's son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, to complete the negotiations and obtain the charter. After obtaining the charter, Calvert went about finding financial backers to help support his attempt to start an overseas colony. In order to attract wealthy immigrants and financial backers, Lord Baltimore offered a variety of inducements that included large land grants, government offices, and noble titles for those who would transport sufficient numbers of settlers to the province. Central to Calvert's plan was a reward of 2,000 acres of land (later 1,000) to investors for every 5 men between the ages of 16 and 50 that they brought into the province (Menard and Carr 1982:177,189). Anyone transporting enough people to receive a grant of at least 1,000 acres (later 3,000) could have his tract designated a manor, complete with the right to hold court and other privileges. Lord Baltimore envisioned the manorial lords as forming a new nobility with similar powers and responsibilities as the established landed gentry in England.