Ashbridge, Elizabeth (1713–1755)

English-born American Quaker. She is remembered for her autobiography Some Account of the Fore-Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge, first published in England 1774. The book is a frank account of her unhappy marriage and her search, with the help of various religious groups, for a sincere religious faith. It is remarkable both as the spiritual testament of an intelligent and courageous woman, and also as a revealing (and often unflattering) depiction of life in colonial America in the first half of the 18th century.

She was born in Middlewich in Cheshire, England, the daughter of a ship's surgeon. At the age of 14 she eloped and married, though within six months her husband left her. Abandoned by her immediate family, she went to live with relatives in Ireland, and from there, at the age of 19, she sailed to America. Kidnapped and held as a virtual slave for a few years, she finally bought her freedom and married again at the age of 22. Her husband was a teacher from New York and her book is largely an account of their life together moving from one village school to another. After several bitterly unhappy years of marriage he deserted her and joined the British army. She married for a third time, to Aaron Ashbridge, in 1746 and settled in New Jersey. In 1753 she returned to Ireland, where she died.