On October 24, 1682, the Lords Proprietors created Mr. John Ashby as a Cassique. He was a merchant in London and described as "Johannes Ashby Londini Mercator," and had been previsously connected to the Lords Proprietors as a member of the Royal African Company of England. This John Ashby was a cadet of the family of Ashby of Quenby in the county of Leicester, who descend from Richard de Ashby, Lord of the Manors of South Croxton and Quenby, County Leicester in 1297 A.D.

John Ashby married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir. Benjamin Thorowgood, alderman of London. It is very doubtful that this man ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean for Carolina. There iare hints that he came to South Carolina in 1681 but quickly returned to England.

Before being named a Cassique, John Ashby was granted 2,000 acres on the southernmost side of the eastern branch of the Cooper River on April 25, 1681. This grant was "at a place called by the Indians Yadhaw." He was also granted a lot in Charles Town on October 6, 1681.

Cassique John Ashby died in 1699 in England and he bequeathed his Carolina property to his son "now in Carolina" - John Ashby, hereinafter called John Ashby II. After the arrival of John Ashby II to South Carolina (year not known), several other grants were made to his father and several to him, apparently adjacent to the original 2,000 acre grant at Yadhaw:

The name Yadhaw was not retained. Since much of the land was situated on a creek that was named by Ashby, his plantation and creek was named Quenby after the ancestral home in England. Over succeeding years, the name evolved by others to be known as Quinby, as it is now known. John Ashby II apparently grew up at the English Quenby Plantation. He married Constantia Broughton, a sister of the Hon. Thomas Broughton, and they had at least five children, the first of which was - of course - named John - hereinafter referred to as John Ashby III.

John Ashby II, the second Cassique, died on November 20, 1716 and his widow, Constantia on January 20, 1720.

John Ashby III, the third Cassique, married Elizabeth Ball, daughter of Elias Ball, and they had a son - John - who died young without issue. John III died around March of 1729, and all the lands went to Elizabeth, who remarried to John Vicaridge, who also died soon, and she remarried a second time to Richard Shubrick. They had a son, also named Richard, who inherited Quenby Plantation.

Quenby Barony Plat