Henry Ashton

Liverpool merchant in Henry and Ralph Ashton (q.v.). Henry Ashton was also trustee under Ralph Ashton's will. 

1.  Ralph Ashton, Henry Ashton's partner and probably also his brother, was a resident of Dominica in the 1820s. 

2. '[Death] At his residence Woodside Cheshire near Liverpool England on the 28th May last [1842] after an illness of five months, Henry Ashton Esq., many years an eminent merchant in the Island of Dominica.'

3. Under the will of Henry Ashton gentleman of Liverpool proved 09/06/1842 he left his property in Dominica to Robert Gordon of Dominica (described as the son of Lucinda Garraway wife of the Honourable Frederick Garraway of Dominica), rather than to his son Ralph Ashton, who was the major legatee of Henry Ashton's English property.

4. Ashton Park in West Kirby was reportedly developed on land leased from Emma Mary Ashton, a spinster of Kensington, the daughter of Ralph Ashton and the grand-daughter of Henry Ashton who had 'made his fortune trading with the West Indies, especially Dominica where he owned coffee plantations.'

T71/881 Dominica claim nos. 224 (Trafalgar), 448 (Everton) and 820. 

1. See e.g 'An appeal and a caution to the British Nation with proposals for the immediate or gradual Emancipation of the slaves: indemnity must precede Emancipation' by a Member of the Dominica legislature (London, printed for John Richardson 1824) p. 74, dealing with formation of a Dominica Auxiliary Church Missionary Society Feb. 1823.  

2. Sydney Morning Herald, 19/12/1842 p. 2 at http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/12427146?searchTerm= [accessed 11/10/2010].

3. PROB 11/1963/212.

4. http://www.ashtonpark.btck.co.uk/History/AfullerHistoryofAshtonPark [accessed 29/09/2014]. Emma Ashton is shown as a step-daughter, living with Edward M. Edwards and Emma F. Edwards, at 4 Lewes Crescent Brighton in 1861. The will of Ralph Ashton of Ramsgate Kent proved 03/05/1850 (PROB 11/2112/297) identifies his wife Emma Frances and his daughter Emma Mary, a minor.