Sir James Ashe, 2nd Baronet (27 July 1674 – 8 November 1733) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 baronet and Whig politician.

Background

He was the oldest surviving son of Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Baronet

Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Baronet

Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Baronet was an English Whig politician and merchant.Originally from Somerset, he was the third son of James Ashe and his wife Grace Pitt, daughter of Richard Pitt. In 1757, he settled in Twickenham and bought Cambridge Park, Middlesex...

 and his wife Mary Wilson, daughter of Robert Wilson. In 1686, aged only eleven, he succeeded his father as baronet. Ashe owned land in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

 and held shares of the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

.

Career

He entered the English House of Commons in 1701, sitting as a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Downton

Downton (UK Parliament constituency)

Downton was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

, the constituency his father has represented before, until 1705. A year later, Ashe was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire

High Sheriff of Wiltshire

This is a list of High Sheriffs of Wiltshire.Until the 14th century the shrievalty was held ex officio by the castellans of Old Sarum.-To 1400:*1066: Edric*1067-1070: Philippe de Buckland*1085: Aiulphus the Sheriff*1070–1105: Edward of Salisbury...

. He stood for Downton again in 1708, however unsuccessfully.

Family

In 1698 against his mother's will, he married his cousin Elizabeth Bowyer, daughter of Sir Edmund Bowyer and had by her four daughters and a son. From 1709 they lived separately, but were not divorced. Ashe died intestate at his seat in Twickenham

Twickenham

Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

 and was buried in Halstead

Halstead

Halstead is a town and civil parish located in Braintree District of Essex, England, near Colchester and Sudbury. It has a population of 11,053. The town is situated in the Colne Valley, and originally developed on the hill to the north of the river...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. His son having predeceased him, the baronetcy became extinct with Ashe's death.