The Ashburner family is an English

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

family whose members were prominent as merchants and administrators in British-ruled

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during the 18th and 19th centuries, especially during

Company rule in India Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...

(1757–1858). The family's history is closely linked to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

and their activities in the

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

(Mumbai) area. William Ashburner (1737–1793), originally from

Dalton-in-Furness Dalton-in-Furness is a town and former civil parish in the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. In 2011 it had a population of 7,827. It is located north east of Barrow-in-Furness. History Dalton is mentioned in the Domesday Book, wr ...

, established the family in India, and was in charge of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

Tellicherry Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karna ...

before he moved to the same position in

. His son Luke Ashburner (1772–1844) became the head of the Bombay Presidency. His granddaughter Sarah married

William Erasmus Darwin William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 18398 September 1914) was the first-born son of Charles Darwin, Charles and Emma Darwin, and the subject of Psychology, psychological studies by his father. He was educated at Rugby School and Christ's College, ...

, the son of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

. George Ashburner (1810–1869), a son of Luke Ashburner, bought the estate Tilgate House in Crawley; his only daughter Sarah married banker John Hennings Nix, and among their descendants were

Alexander Nix Alexander James Ashburner Nix (born 1 May 1975) is a British businessman, the former CEO of Cambridge Analytica and a former director of the Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) Group, a behavioural research and strategic communications ...

, whose full name is Ashburner Nix. A daughter of William Ashburner, Grace Ashburner (1774–1812), married the son of

Thomas Boddington Thomas Boddington (3 June 1736 – 28 June 1821) was a West Indies merchant and political activist in London in the late 18th century. He lived in Clapton (then in Middlesex). Boddington was involved in the Atlantic slave trade and active as part ...

References

British East India Company people English gentry families {{England-bio-stub