Anthony ASHLEY, BARONET

                   Was knighted abt. 1622 for his service at Calais.  Served on the privy council of King James I.
Sir Anthony ASHLEY, of Winbourn St. Giles, who sat in several parliaments, and was highly distinguished by the favor of Queen Elizabeth. He was secretary to the council of war, and received the honour of knighthood for his services at the capture of Calais; the account of which event he brought over to her majesty. He was subseqently secretary to the privy council in the reign of James I. and was created a Baronet in 1622. Sir Anthony married, first, Jane, relict of Thomas Cokaine, esq., of Okeover, in Staffordshire, by whom he had an only daughter and heiress, Anne, who marrying Sir John Cooper, bart., conveyed the Ashley estates to the Cooper family. His lordship had, previously to his elevation to the earldom, been created in 1661, Baron Ashley, in accordance with a stipulation in his father's marriage settlement, that if the family ever attained the peerage, their title would be that of Ashley. Anne Ashley and Sir John ASHLEY-COOPER, (by the above agreement) were the parents of the celebrated statesman, Sir Anthony ASHLEY-COOPER, Earl of Shaftsbury.