Alice Ashton

Not the daughter of Roger Honeychurch

Alice (—) Ashton

John Anderson Brayton, “The Wrong James and Alice (—) Ashton, Alas!” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (160[2006]:60): “Therefore, the chapter on the James Ashton family of Providence in The Ancestry of Emily Jane Angell is still the definitive work on the family.”

For the best research on Thomas and Alice (Ashton) Angell and their descendants, see the Angell and Ashton chapters in Dean Crawford Smith (Author) and Melinde Lutz Sanborn (Editor), The Ancestry of Emily Jane Angell, 1844–1910 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1992); Angell begins at page 107 and Ashton begins at page 185.

107: https://archive.org/details/ancestryofemilyj00smit/page/107/mode/1up

185: https://archive.org/details/ancestryofemilyj00smit/page/185/mode/1up

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/angell.html

Alice was born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in about 1617, to James Ashton and Alice Honeychurch. Alice's father was Roger Honeychurch, who was Clerk Vicar of Mildreth, Diocese of Ely. Her sister was Mary Honeychurch, the potential mother of our Thomas. One interesting note is that assuming all of these connections are accurate, Thomas "the Immigrant" Angell and his wife, Alice Ashton were first cousins.

There are a couple of fanciful theories as to why there is little information about James and Mary's relationship. One is that James was a very rich (footnote 4) wild child when he first started his studies and that there is the possibility that Thomas was the result of an early marriage or indiscretion with Mary Honeychurch, when he was about 18.

NOTE; If the birthdate of c.1583 on this particular record the note above regarding "Honeychurch" must refer to a different Alice.