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    Robert Ashman is first found in Hempstead, Long Island, when he is listed in 1647, as sharing in the first division of land there, and it is not unfair to assume that his name was one of the three, missing from the original list of the founders, which had been eaten off by mice before 1848. On November 10, 1654, he was nominated with others to serve as Magistrates, and the Director-General and Council in New Amsterdam chose John Symons and Robert Ashman.  On December 15, 1661, Robert Ashman was again appointed Magistrate, and on February 25, 1661, he complained to Peter Stuyvesant that he was not fit to fill the place because he could not read nor write, but on February 4, 1662 and January 18, 1663, he was renominated and the New Amsterdam powers endorsed him, showing that he must have been an unusually able man. He does not appear in Hempstead after that date, but in the 1680's is a land owner in Jamaica, where he died March 15,1683, and where his widow Catern, Katrina or Katherine sold certain of his lands.  Her maiden name has not been found, but it is suggestive of Dutch origin. The date of her death is not known, but she was living in 1689. From Wills, etc in back of Book A of Queens County, N.Y. Deeds, pp. 42, 43: "Jamaica, June the 13th Anno. 1689, An inventory taken of the estate of Robert Ashman, deceased, by Nathaniell Denton, Senr & John Everett & prized as followeth, viz: (Includes 4 oxen, 3 cows, 1, 3 yr.old steer, 2, 2 yr.old cattle, 2, year old cattle, 1 mare, cart, gun, sword, household goods, a few minor items, farm tools, Total Pounds 47, 05, 00)'  "This being all we could find or being informed of, it amounted to, as Witness our hands, Nathaniel Denton, Sr., John Everet." Queens County, S.S.  Whereas at a Court of Sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire on Long Island on the 13th day of June in the 35th year of the reigh of the Lord Charles the Second, late King of England *c. Anmno Domini, 1683, A noncupative Will of Robert Ashman, late of Jamaica, aforesaid, deceased, was proved by the oaths of Rush Smith, Jonathan Furman & John Carman & the widow (in regard the sd testator had not named in his said will, nominated an executrix) having desired letters of administration upon the said estate, was recomended to the Comander & Councill for obtaining the same accordingly, And Whereas at an Inferior Court of Pleas held at Jamaica in the County aforesaid on the 10th day of April, 1689, Katrina Ashman, the widow of the said Robert Ashman, deceased & Wait Smith & Nathaniel Denton, Jr., her sons "in" law (in omitted) (not having obtained letters of administration of the Comander & Councill aforesd) made application to administer upon the estate aforesaid." "These my (may) certify unto all whom it may concern that the said Katrine Ashman, Waite Smith and Nathaniel Denton, Jr., having exhibited an inventory of the goods & chattels of the sd testator, being under the value of Fifty pounds, into the sd Court & also security truly to administer, they, above named are admitted joint administrators &c." Signed by Thomas Hicks, Esq. Judge of the Court at Jamaica, 10, July, 1689. New York published wills, Vol. 1, p. 125, state that Joseph Smith, Jonathan Wellman and John Colman declared that a short time before Robert Ashman died, when "being in his perfect senses," they heard him declare as his will, that he gave all his estate to his wife for life and then among his children, only Thomas Flewellen was to have a double portion, if he was dutiful and good to his grand mother. Letters granted to his widow, March 13, 1683 and the declaration signed, July 26, 1683.  He died March 15, 1683 owning a home lot, orchard, barn, 10 acres of meadow and 309 upland and part of a ten acre lot. Aspinwall's Notarial Record, p. 321 shows that Robert Ashman was in Stratford, Conn., September 30, 1648. Issue:(order not known) John, Lydia Swanson, Deborah, wife of Nathaniel Denton, Jr.; Mary, wife of Hope Carpenter; Martha Cokse; Phebe, wife of Wait Smith; Hannah, wife of Thomas Flewelling. References: Documents of Early Colonial History of New York, Vol. 14, pp. 296,496, 509, 521, 529; New York Record, Vol. 10, p. 9; Annals of Hempstead, L.I., pp. 41, 42, 43, 63; Jamaica Town Records, Vol. 1, pp. 109, 149, 250, 325, 326, 360-362; Vol.2, pp. 337,
396; Vol. 3, p. 49.  (Source - Pg 62-63: Keeler-Wood genealogy)

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