Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/820

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

shire in 1296, and from him the present family descends. The heraldic insignia which distinguish the family is described as follows : Arms : Azure, a chevron, ermine between three pards' heads, or. Crest: On a mural crown a pard's head. Motto: Be just and fear not.

The American branches of this noted line, which in its new home has created record as honorable as that by which it is known in England, are found in Virginia as early as 1635, i" Massachusetts in 1640, and in Maryland in 1650. The immediate ancestor of the branch herein recorded was Captain Thomas Ashby, who located in Fauquier county, Virginia, between 1690 and 1700, later moving into the Shenandoah Valley. His descendants have written their names boldly across the face of the history of Vir- ginia, and have supplied colony and state with men of patriotism, devotion and abil- ity. Statesmen and men of affairs have been numerous in the line, but with particular pre-eminence do the names appear in rela- tion to military service, from the daring Captain Jack Ashby, of pre-revolutionary days, to the heroic General Turner Ashby, of the war between the states, the "gallant plumed knight of the Confederate States." To Geneial Turner Ashby, whose valuable service to the Confederate cause was cut short as he was leading his regiment into battle near Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the second year of the war, the brilliant writer. John Esten Cooke, paid this tribute :

The writer had the honor to know the dead chief of the valley cavalry, to hear the sweet accent of his voice, to meet the friendly glance of the eagle eyes. It seems to him now as he remembers Ashby that the hand he touched was that of the veritable child of chivalry. Never did taint of arrogance or vanity, of rudeness or discourtesy, touch that pure and beautiful spirit. This man of daring so prover- bial, of powers of endurance so incredible, of char- acter so heroic, and of a sagacity so unfailing that it drew forth the praise of General Jackson was as simple as a child and never seemed to dream that he had accomplished anything to make him famous.

The praise of General "Stonewall" Jack- son mentioned in the above quotation was couched in these decided terms:

As a partisan ofificer I never knew his superior; his daring was proverbial: his powers of endurance almost incredible: his tone of character heroic and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the pur- poses and movements of the enemy.

Captain Thomas Ashby died in 1752, leaving a will, probated in Frederick county, \'irginia, in which he divided a large landed estate among twelve sons and daughters. From his eldest son. Captain Jack Ashby, "Ashby 's Gap," a mountain pass of the Blue Ridge chain, took its name, the occasion of its christening being a thrilling and dis- astrous ride he once took through there with a heavily loaded team. Another of the sons of Captain Thomas Ashby was Robert, born in 1710, died in 1792, who passed his entire life in Fauquier county, Virginia. He left a large family of children and named John Ashby as one of the executors of his will, although whether this John Ashby was the son or nephew of Robert Ashby has never been positively decided.

Captain John Ashby was a man of promi- nent position, and according to the family records a man of affairs and importance in Fauquier county. He died in 1814, aged seventy-five years. His wife was Mary Turner, of Maryland. From 1775 to 1783 he held a coinmission as captain in the Third Virginia Regiment, continental line. He was the father of three daughters and seven sons.

Nimrod Ashby, fifth child and third son of Captain John and Mary (Turner) Ashby, was born October 17, 1778. Like his brother John, he held the rank of captain in the United States army in the war of 1812, another brother, Samuel, held a com- mission as major in the same conflict, and another brother of Nimrod Ashby was com- missioned officer in the war of 1812. Niin- rod Ashby married Elizabeth Thomas Adams, and had issue.

Nimrod Thomas Ashby, son of Nimrod and Elizabeth Thomas (Adams) Ashby, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, and there married Delia Smith, a native of the same couiity. Among his children was Samuel Turner, of whom further.

Samuel Turner Ashby, son of Nimrod Thomas and Delia (Smith) Ashby, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, died at Culpeper, Virginia, in June, 1882. Prior to the Civil war he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Washington, D. C, and later was a planter and merchant in the region of his birthplace, and in that conflict he served the Confederacy as a member of the com- missary department. Samuel Turner Ash-