Place Name
William Pritchard Ashhurst (May 17, 1699 – May 31, 1773) was a member of a family of Lancashire baronets – note the spelling. He was the eldest son of Henry Ashhurst (1669 – 1705) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Grace of Eltham. He inherited substantial properties in Highgate from his grandfather and later his mother, but he sold them both. At 18, William attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and went on to become Captain (and later Colonel) of the Middlesex militia. In 1738, he purchased Trevor Park, a 17thCentury mansion originally known as Church Hill House and previously occupied by the Hadley family, from Thomas Trevor. According to the landedfamilies blog: “He was unmarried, but in his will made provision for Mary Ashhurst, widow, of Exeter Court in the Strand and her daughter Hannah, who may have been his illegitimate child.” He was buried at East Barnet, June 5, 1773.
