Ashe was born in
Beaufort in the
Province of North Carolina. His father, John Baptista Ashe, and brother,
John Ashe, both served as
Speaker of the North Carolina Assembly, or House of Burgesses. Ashe became an orphan at the age of nine. He married Mary Porter in 1748; they had three children, including
John Baptista Ashe, who would serve in the
Continental Congress. After Mary died, Ashe remarried, this time to Elizabeth Merrik. Ashe studied law and was named Assistant Attorney for the Crown in the
Wilmington district of the colony. During the American Revolution, Ashe served as lieutenant and paymaster of the
1st North Carolina Continental Regiment from September 1775 until he resigned on April 16, 1776. He later served as a captain of the
First Troop of North Carolina Continental Dragoon Regiment from March 1777 until the regiment was disbanded on January 1, 1779. In 1795, the
General Assembly elected him governor at 70. He served three one-year terms, the maximum constitutional limit, before retiring in 1798. Ashe was active in politics after his term as governor, serving as a member of the
United States Electoral College in 1804, when his fellow
Democrat-Republican,
Thomas Jefferson, was reelected over
Federalist Charles C. Pinckney. ,
North Carolina ==Namesakes and family==