Elizabeth Ashbridge

Elizabeth Ashbridge (1713–1755) was an 18th century Quaker minister born in Cheshire, England.

Biography

Early life

Elizabeth was born in 1713 in the town of Middlewich in Cheshire, England [Levenduski (2006), p.2] to Thomas and Mary Sampson. Thomas was a surgeon on sea vessels and Mary was a pious follower of the Church of England. Mary was widowed in a previous marriage, and Elizabeth had a step brother and step sister as a result.

When Elizabeth turned 14, she married a miserly stocking weaver several years her elder without parental consent. She left with him only to become a widow herself five months later. This marriage drove a wedge between herself and her father, who refused to accept her back in her childhood home. So Elizabeth was sent to Dublin, Ireland, where she lived for the next five years with some Quaker relatives of her mother.

Kidnapping

In part due to her rebellious nature, Elizabeth hatched a plan where she would migrate to America. Whilst preparing for her departure, she was kidnapped by a woman who trafficked human beings as indentured servants for profit. The woman had tricked her into believing she was providing her with a passage to America, and led her to a boat which she was enslaved on. About five weeks later Elizabeth managed an escape. Soon after Elizabeth got on the very same boat she was indentured on and set off for America. During the voyage she averted mutiny upon the ship, after hearing a group of Irish servants plotting a hostile takeover. Upon telling the captain, he had her sign an indentureship contract of four years of which he sold to a brutish man from New York.

This was followed by three long years of adversity working for this master. However, during her indentureship she managed to work odd jobs to pay off her last year of the contract. It was during this time that she met her second husband, a teacher by the name of Sullivan.

Quakerism

Sometime during this second marriage, the couple visited relatives over in Pennsylvania. It was here that Elizabeth experienced a conversion from the Anglicanism of her youth to the beliefs of a Quaker. Her husband, Sullivan, felt deeply threatened by this development and demanded that she live her life by his side roaming the various colonies.

Ultimately Sullivan could not keep Elizabeth from her religious practice, and eventually she was made a Quaker minister. Sullivan even began displaying mild interest in Quakerism by now. One night in a drunken stupor he enlisted himself in the army and was soon called to serve, which he refused claiming his Quaker religion as the reason why. This resulted in a horrific beating that hospitalized him and ultimately killed him in under a year.

Five years later Elizabeth married a third husband, his name Aaron Ashbridge. Aaron was a well known and respected member within the Quaker community in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Notes

References

* Levenduski, Cristine. "Peculiar Power: A Quaker Woman Preacher in Eighteenth-Century America". Washington, D.C: The Smithsonian Institute, 1996. ISBN 1-56098-670-0.