The Ash family came from New York State to Hamilton Township before the year 1797. They were among the first settlers to take up land in Hamilton Township, to the east of Cobourg. Allen Ash was born in Hamilton Township in 1800, and is reported to be the second white child to be native of the township. He grew up to be a farmer, musician and inventor. He died in 1889. Ash played the violin and also built a number of fiddles as well as a hammered dulcimer. One of his heavily decorated fiddles was discovered hanging on a wall in a cafe on Manitoulin Island by Oliver Schroer in the 1990s. Ash is also supposed to have invented some sort of threshing machine. His book of tunes was probably compiled between about 1830 and 1860s. The tunes are mostly from the British Isles but also include some European pieces as well. It’s important to remember that as someone born in Upper Canada we know these tunes all came to his ears or eyes here he didn’t bring them from anywhere else. The repertoire in his book has a lot in common with similar collections from the UK and the US of the same period. A grandson of Allen Ash, W. Allen Fisher, deposited Ash family manuscripts with the National Library in Ottawa. Helmut Kalmann, chief archivist, informed me that the manuscripts have received more attention from musicologists than any other single artifact in its collection.  Allen Ash’s gravestone can be seen in Baltimore, Ontario.