Biography:
John Ashton, a Jesuit missionary, was born in 1742 in Ireland. He entered the society of Jesus on September 7, 1759, and was sent to work in Maryland in 1767. Ashton was in charge of the White Marsh Mission, in Prince George's County for thirty-nine years. Ashton was one of the early contributors to Georgetown College and in 1784 was named Procurator General.
Ashton was a slave owner in the Queen Anne District in Prince George's County, MD. According to the 1790 Census, John Ashton owned 82 slaves. In 1791 one of Ashton's slaves Edward Queen brought a suit against his owner for assault and battery and false imprisonment, in which the court ruled in Ashton's favor. Several of Ashton's slaves ran away from his service in the late 18th and early 19th Century. On one occasion twelve of his slaves, members of the Queen family (Simon, Billy, Jack, Lewis, Isaac, Paul, Matthew, Tom, Billy, Nick, Tom, and Fanny), ran away in May 1795. In the April term of 1796 Ashton freed the following members of the Queen family: Basil, Billy, Charity, Edward, Jacob, John, Mary, Nelly, Nicholas, Simon, and Stephen. Simon and Billy are the only two slaves out of the twelve who ran away in 1795 that were freed by Ashton. Father John Ashton died February 4, 1815 in Maryland.
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