♀Margaret (surname unknown)

Margaret (died 13 September 1540) was the wife of Richard Ashe, a landowner of Tickenham, Burnham and Compton Bishop, in Somerset, England, and died less than four weeks after her son, John. She was the fifteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son John Ashe (died 1540).

Marriage

Richard Ashe married Margaret, whose surname is not known. Richard was the one son of James Ashe and his wife, Cecily Berkeley, the heiress of the Berkeleys of Tickenham, who brought Tickenham to the Ashes. Richard and Margaret had a son and heir, John, and probably a second son, Hugh, a gentleman.

Death

Margaret outlived her husband. Their son John died on 19 August 1540, while his own son and heir was still under age, and Margaret died less than four weeks later, on 13 September 1540.

Notes

Sources

Margaret’s marriage, her children and her death, and her husband’s parents and lands, are from Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd edition (2011), vol. 1, pp. 175–176. For the family Richardson cites a fine of 18 June 1503 to which her husband was a party (National Archives CP 25/1/83/58, no. 20), a Chancery suit against her son (C 1/761/24) and the inquisition post mortem^W taken after her son John’s death (E 150/930/15).

Dates

Richardson gives no birth date for Margaret. He calls her Richard’s widow at her death.

Her name

Richardson names her only as Margaret, leaves her surname blank and does not name her parents.

The children

Richardson gives the couple “two sons, John, Esq., and presumably Hugh, Gent.” He says no more of Hugh. The line to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs through John, his daughter Jane Ashe and her son Edward Bassett (1558–1602).