Elizabeth Ashbridge revealed details of her remarkable life in her autobiography, Some Account of the Fore Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge...Written by her own Hand many years ago (1754).
Elizabeth Ashbridge Born in England
Daughter of devout Church of England members Thomas and Mary (Sampson) Ashbridge, Elizabeth was born in Middlewich, Cheshire, England in 1713. At age 14, in rebellion against her authoritarian father, she eloped with a miserly older man who died within a few months. When her father refused Elizabeth’s return to the family, Mary sent her widowed daughter to live for five years with Quaker relatives in Dublin, Ireland.
Indentured Servant in the Colonies
An indentured servant, Elizabeth arrived in New York July 15, 1732, and suffered such terrible miseries during the following years that she considered ending her life. A fine dancer and singer, she accepted an invitation to join a playhouse company in New York in order to earn some money. Upon receiving word from her family in England, Elizabeth considered her father’s forgiveness of her transgression and then refused his invitation to return to her childhood home.
Fervently independent, she used her earnings to secure her freedom from her very cruel master who presented himself as a religious man, but whose behaviour had confirmed her growing sense that with many people, apparent piety was actually hypocrisy. A free woman, Elizabeth married a suitor named Sullivan, a teacher who loved her vivaciousness and her dancing.
Spiritual Mission
In her autobiography, Elizabeth speaks of the journey from her Long Island home to Philadelphia where she visited relatives who were Quakers. During earlier her stay in Ireland with a family of Quakers, she had not read any of the material available in the home, as she believed that they denied the scriptures and all holy ordinances, and followed the words written in George Fox’s Journal.
At the home of her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth became tearful while reading a Quaker’s book, and began to feel drawn to the eloquence and beauty of the faith. Though her opinion of the people she had criticized changed immediately, she believed that she was “in danger of being deluded”. For several weeks, she did not read another of their books, but attended a meeting with her aunt and uncle, and within a few weeks, believed that she should join the society.
Hired to keep school, she wrote to her husband, but did not tell him of her intentions. Having heard that his wife had ‘turned Quaker’, Sullivan stated, “I had rather have heard she was dead, well as I love her; for, if it be so, all my comfort is gone.” He went into a rage when she greeted him with, “My dear, I am glad to see thee”, and refused to accept that his once light-hearted wife had become a somber, self-directed woman.
Forced to Leave the Quakers
Refusing to stay among the Society of Friends (Quakers), Sullivan found employment and lodging in the home of a churchwarden who bitterly opposed the Friends. He then travelled thirty miles to fetch his wife who felt despair when the two men reviled all matters pertaining to the Quakers. Unable to dissuade her, Sullivan sought help of a Church of England priest who knew that Elizabeth was a certified member of the Church.
Without opportunity to say goodbye to her relations, Elizabeth travelled to Philadelphia with Sullivan where she became the object of derision when he announced that she was a Quaker. When she refused to dance for her husband, he pulled her around the room until the fiddler stopped playing and demanded that he let her alone. Despite her husband’s warnings that he would harm her if she attended meetings, Elizabeth continued to do so. During one of their many confrontations, she stated that it was her duty to be a Quaker, and he realized that he could not overthrow her beliefs if they were of God.
Ultimately, Elizabeth became a minister with the Quakers, and Sullivan died after enlisting in the army. Some years later, she married well-known Chester County, Pennsylvania Quaker Aaron Ashbridge. In 1755, Elizabeth Ashbridge died while visiting Quakers in Kilnock, County of Carlow, Ireland.
Source
- Elizabeth Ashbridge, Some Account of the Early Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge (written by her own hand many years ago) Philadelphia: H. and T. Kite, 1807)
Kathleen Airdrie - Kathleen has thirty years' freelance writing experience covering history, biographical profiles, environmental and social issues
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