Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Baronet, c.1660-65 (oil on canvas)

Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Bt (1617-1686) A three-quarter-length portrait of a young man, standing turned to the left, gazing at the spectator, wearing a breast plate with lace cravat and a slate-violet scarf, brown coat and breeches, background of rocks and trees. Sir Joseph Ashe was the son of James Ashe, a Somerset clothier. He was a wealthy merchant trading with Flanders, whose financial aid to the Royalist cause was recognised with a baronetcy at the Restoration, and who enabled the Duchess of Newcastle to leave Antwerp by lending her the money to pay off the Duke's debts. He acquired and added to a substantial estate in Twickenham (cf. Maureen Bunch, Cambridge Park, Twickenham, and its owners, 1616-1835, Oct. 1989, pp.8-15). He was president of the East India Company in 1684-5. He married Mary Wilson, the daughter of a London draper, by whom he had two sons and seven daughters. His eldest daughter Katherine (1652-1729) married William Windham I of Felbrigg in 1669, whilst his second daughter, Mary (1653-85) married Sir Horatio, 1st Viscount Townshend in 1673. His second son and heir, Sir James Ashe, 2nd Bt. (1674-1733), whose marriage with Catherine Bowyer turned out ill, and whose only son predeceased him, had a surviving daughter and heir Martha, who married Joseph, the seventh son of William Windham I, and inherited and squandered his estates.