Ashe (Ash), Richard (d. 1659), ecclesiastical official, was probably the son of Nicholas Ash of Newtown, Co. Meath, though he may have been the son of Henry Ashe. He is recorded as having married Alice Jones, daughter of Lewis Jones (qv), bishop of Killaloe; they had two sons and a daughter. At one time in the employ of Sir Stephen Butler of Belturbet, he held local offices in Cavan, including as a JP, and was ‘register’ (registrar) of the diocese of Kilmore, serving with the protestant bishop, William Bedell (qv), on a commission for re-edifying churches in the diocese in 1633–4. The dispute between Bedell and the diocesan chancellor, Alan Cooke, resulted in Cooke delegating his authority to Ashe by the late 1630s, Ashe managing to co-operate amicably with Bedell. At this time he resided at Lisnamaine castle, Co. Cavan, which he leased from his kinsman, Arthur Culme. Ashe was elected an MP for Belturbet, Co. Cavan, in 1640, but was expelled from parliament (26 July 1642) for participation in the 1641 insurrection, professing a catholic allegiance at that time. He may have been the Richard Ash who attended at least two confederate general assemblies. He died in 1659.
Sources
GO, MS 94, p. 59; William Knowler ed., The earl of Strafforde's letters and dispatches (2 vols., 1739), i, 147, 150; E. S. Shuckburgh (ed.), Two biographies of William Bedell (1902), 51, 123; Hugh O'Reilly, ‘Lisnamaine castle’, Breifne, vi (1985), 272–3; Bríd McGrath, ‘A biographical dictionary of the membership of the Irish house of Commons, 1640–1641’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Dublin, 1997), 49–50; Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland (1999), 256