William Ashley, sen., was born in the city of London, England, in the year 1749, and joined the army at an early age. During the American Revolutionary war, he came out under General Howe, serving in all his campaigns until the close of the struggle. He had two brothers also in the army with him, one of whom returned to England, and the other settled somewhere in the United States, the exact locality not now being known. General J. M. Ashley, Republican member of Congress from Ohio, is, so far as can be ascertained, a descendant of this brother. After the termination of the war, William Ashley came to Canada, and first settled in the township of Loborough, county of Frontenac, where he married Margaret Buck, the daughter of a U. E. L., and one of the first settlers in this part of Canada. He resided here until about 1790, when he removed to Kingston, where he followed the employment of a butcher, and was the first butcher in Kingston, a fact he often mentioned in his old age. He built a house of red cedar logs, cut from the spot, which continued to stand until 1858, when it was taken down and a small brick building, the “Victoria Hotel,” built on the site. When removed the logs were found in a perfectly sound condition, they having been covered with clapboards many years ago, which preserved them from the weather. This house stood on Brock street, near the corner of Bagot street. At the time of its erection there were scarcely twenty residences in the place, and that part of the city now lying west of the City Hall was then covered with a dense forest of pine, cedar and ash. William Ashley lived to see this pass away and a flourishing city spring up. He died in 1835, leaving a family of ten children—Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, William, John, James, Thomas, Henry, Adam and George: all of whom are now dead excepting Thomas, who resides near Toronto. James also died in 1835, and Henry, who was the first gaoler in Picton, died in 1836, at the early age of thirty-one. William Ashley, Jun., married Ann Gerollamy, daughter of an officer in the British army, serving through the Revolutionary War, and acting as Orderly in the war of 1812. He left Kingston in 1830, and resided until 1842 near the mouth of Black River, in the township of Marysburgh, and then returned, and continued to reside there, teaching, and filling various offices until his death, August 16, 1867. The _British Whig_ newspaper when recording his death, remarked, “Mr. Ashley was one of our oldest citizens, and has lived to witness many changes in his native place. He was born on the very spot where the _British Whig_ office now stands.” The last sentence is a mistake, he was not born in the city, but in the township of Loborough; although the building containing the _British Whig_ office still belongs to the ‘Ashley property’ on Bagot Street.