Person:Samuel Ashley (1)

After his father died when he was six, his mother remarried and moved the family to Northfield. As a young man, he fought under Capt. Josiah Kellogg in area battles. He was an original grantee of Winchester, NH land, as well as one of the first selectmen. He was also granted land in Windsor, VT, Shrewsbury, VT, and Claremont, NH.

He lived most of his life in Winchester (where he settled in 1754) and served as a representative of that town in the Provincial Government which dealt with the launching of the Revolution. In 1776, he was appointed 1st Justice of the interior Court of Common Pleas of Cheshire County and held the post for many years even as he served in the Militia. During the Revolution, he fought at Ticonderoga and commanded the 13th and 6th NH Regiments. He was nominated as a delegate to the Continental Congress, but he did not accept. (His revolutionary service is in contrast to his daughter Tirzah’s husband’s family - the Spencers got a Loyalist grant in Canada.)

The monument in the Claremont Cemetary is inscribed as follows:

‘In memory of the Hon. Sam’l Ashley, Esq.

Blessed with good natural talents and an 

heart rightly to improve them, he in various

departments of civil and military life exhibited 

a character honorable to himself and useful to

others, having presided for several years in

the lower court of this county. Probity and

fidelity displayed the virtues of the patriot and 

Christian as well in public as in domestic life.

The Small Pox put a period to his earthy 

course Feb 18, 1792, aged 71 years.’

Samuel is also briefly profiled in “A List of The Revolutionary Soldiers of Dublin, N.H” by Derby, 1901. He is said to have had a house at Ft. Dimmer (Hinsdale) in 1749, to have been active in the civic affairs of western N.H., and to have removed to Claremont in 1782. “He was a member of several Provincial Congresses, of the N. H. Com. of Safety, and of the Ex. Com. of the State, 1776-80.” He was on Gen. Stark’s staff and fought at the battle of Burgoyne.

Samuel's son Oliver was Capt. Oliver Ashley who had some fame during the Revolution. His son Samuel also served with Oliver as a 1st Lieutenant.

1. ↑ Temple, Josiah Howard; George Sheldon; and Mary T. Stratton. History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts, for 150 years: with an account of the prior occupation of the territory by the Squakheags: and with family genealogies. (Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1875)
   p. 399.
2. ↑ Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, United States. Birth and Death Records from Westfield City Hall. (Westfield, Massachusetts, 1937).
3. ↑ Trowbridge, Francis Bacon. The Ashley Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Robert Ashley of Springfield, Massachusetts. (New Haven, 1896).
4.   Doolittle, William F.; Louise Smylie Brown; and Mary Malissa Raison Doolittle. The Doolittle Family in America. (Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland: National Printing (1901), 1901-1967).