| Notes |
- Sir Ralph de Assheton (or Ashton), starts the pedigree for "Ashton of Middleton," in Vis. of Lancs., 1664/5. [1] He was the son of Sir John de Assheton and either Margaret Byron da. of Sir John Byron of Clayton, Lancs [2] or Margaret Grey. [3] His half-brother Sir Thomas Ashton arranged his first marriage.
Ralph married twice to:
• Margaret, dau. of John Barton of Middleton [4] [5]
• and Elizabeth, dau. of John Chichele of Wimpole; widow of John Kyriel of Stockbury, Westenhanger (Kent).
His first wife Margaret, was the heiress of the Bartons of Middleton and the Ashton family held the lordship of the manor of Middleton until the 18th century.
Ralph was Knight Marshal of England and went by the nickname of 'The Black Knight of Ashton'. Sheriff of York from 1473 to 1474. He was invested as a Knight Banneret in 1482. He held the office of Vice-Constable of England in 1483. On 6 June 1486 he was pardoned by Henry VII for supporting Richard III.
The effigy of the Black Knight is still paraded through the town of Ashton on Easter Monday, and he passed into folklore which 19th-cent. antiquaries recorded the rhyme:
Sweet Jesu, for thy mercy sake And for thy bitter passion Save us from the axe of the Tower And from Sir Ralph of Ashton.
Children of Sir Ralph Assheton and Margaret Barton
• Sir Richard Assheton (d. 1507) - heir, of Middleton
• Sir Ralph Assheton (fl. 1501), kt. - the ancestor of the Assheton family of Great Lever
• John Assheton (fl. 1501);
• Roger Assheton (fl. 1501);
• Edmund Assheton (fl. 1484).
Sir Ralph Assheton married Elizabeth Chicheley, daughter of John Chicheley, Chamberlain of London and Margery Knollys, before 1486.(No Issue) [6]
Sources
• ? Ashton, (Vis. of Lancs., 1664/5). WikiTree.com . Pedigree .
• ? Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 301-302.
• ? Rosemary Horrox, 'Ashton, Sir Ralph (c.1425-1487x90)' , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
• ? Ashton of Great Lever, (Vis. of Lancs., 1567). WikiTree.com . Pedigree .
• ? Vis. of Lancs., 1664/5, asserts that Margaret was d. & h. of Richard Barton, Esq. of Middleton, Lancs.
• ? Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 301-302.
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Abt 1421 - 1486 (~ 65 years)
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