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:
Original Yadhaw Grant: |
2,000 acres |
September 9, 1696 Grant |
250 acres |
January 2, 1697 Grant |
490 acres |
January 12, 1705 Grant |
1,500 acres |
ditto |
200 acres |
ditto |
200 acres |
ditto |
500 acres |
Total |
5,140 acres |
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
Source: The Baronies of South Carolina by Henry
A.M. Smith, as published in the South Carolina Historical and
Genealogical Magazine, Volume XVIII, 1917.
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