View source for William Ashburne

{{Infobox Character
| full_name         = William Ashburne
| affiliation       = [[Visit Verdant|Verdant, Connecticut]] (co-founder)
| status            = Deceased (d. winter 1693-94)
| occupation        = Co-founder of Verdant
| first_appearance  = [[Eleanor Ashburne]] diaries (referenced throughout SSU)
| canon_status      = Confirmed
}}

== About ==
'''William Ashburne''' (b. est. c. 1630-1640, d. winter 1693-94) was the husband of [[Eleanor Ashburne]] and co-founder of [[Visit Verdant|Verdant, Connecticut]]. He fled Wethersfield with Eleanor on October 1, 1662, the night before her planned arrest for witchcraft, and arrived with her at the settlement that became Verdant on October 11. He became [[Marguerite Delacroix (Gen 0)|Marguerite Delacroix]]'s lover in 1689 and is the biological father of [[Margot Delacroix (Gen 1)|the first Margot Delacroix]]. He died in the illness of winter 1693-94, when the first Margot was approximately two years old.

== Description ==
No physical description has been established in canon. He was estimated to be approximately 50-60 years old at the time of the first Margot's birth in 1691.

== Background ==
William and [[Eleanor Ashburne]] fled Wethersfield, Connecticut on October 1, 1662, the night before Eleanor's planned arrest during the Connecticut Witch Trials. They arrived at an existing cluster of ramshackle huts on October 11 and two days later, on October 13, Eleanor convened the gathered group and named the settlement Verdant. William was present at the founding and is recognized as co-founder alongside Eleanor.

Beyond the founding, William's specific role in Verdant's early governance and daily operations has not been established in canon. Eleanor's diaries are the primary record of Verdant's history, and they are Eleanor's document. William appears in them as a presence, a partner, and eventually as a figure of loss, but the details of his independent contributions to the settlement are not drawn out separately from Eleanor's account.

== The unconventional bond ==
On September 3, 1689, Eleanor witnessed William and [[Marguerite Delacroix (Gen 0)|Marguerite]] in an embrace and began processing her own complicated feelings. The three entered an unconventional bond over the years that followed. By 1691, Marguerite was pregnant with William's child. Eleanor grappled with jealousy and longing as the pregnancy progressed, having always wanted a child and been unable to conceive.

William led the search parties when Marguerite vanished the morning after the baby's birth, taking the placenta and birth blood. He and Eleanor named the baby Margot in January 1692, as an act of tribute to her vanished mother.

== Death ==
William died in the illness of winter 1693-94, part of the same outbreak that killed approximately a third of Verdant's population. [[Margot Delacroix (Gen 1)|The first Margot]] was approximately two years old at the time. He is the last acknowledged father in the Delacroix line for several generations, and his death left Eleanor and the returned Marguerite to raise Margot between them.

== Legacy ==
William is the biological father of [[Margot Delacroix (Gen 1)|the first Margot Delacroix]], through whom the entire [[Delacroix Family|Delacroix matrilineal line]] descends. The naming pattern Eleanor established when she named the baby Margot in his presence, in grief after Marguerite's disappearance, has persisted across nine generations and nearly four centuries.

The Delacroix line's pattern of absent or unacknowledged fathers begins with William's death when the first Margot was two. He is the exception in that he is not absent by choice or circumstance of birth but simply died young. The pattern that followed him, however, has been one of consistent paternal absence across the line.

== Key relationships ==

=== Eleanor Ashburne ===
[[Eleanor Ashburne]] was William's wife and co-founder of Verdant. Their relationship and the nature of their bond within the three-person dynamic with Marguerite have not been detailed in canon beyond what Eleanor's diary records.

=== Marguerite Delacroix (Gen 0) ===
[[Marguerite Delacroix (Gen 0)|Marguerite]] became William's lover around 1689. She bore his daughter in 1691 and vanished the following morning. Whether William ever saw Marguerite again after her disappearance and return has not been detailed; he died before Marguerite returned with the Order of the Hemlock in 1694.

=== Margot Delacroix (Gen 1) ===
William co-named [[Margot Delacroix (Gen 1)|the first Margot]] with Eleanor in January 1692. He died when she was approximately two. His biological line, through her, became the Delacroix dynasty.

== Canon notes ==
* No physical description established
* Exact birth year not established; estimated c. 1630-1640
* His specific role in Verdant's governance beyond co-founding has not been detailed
* Whether he had any understanding of or involvement in Eleanor's magical practice has not been established
* Whether he knew what Marguerite had taken with her when she disappeared has not been established

== Related articles ==
* [[Eleanor Ashburne]]
* [[Marguerite Delacroix (Gen 0)]]
* [[Margot Delacroix (Gen 1)]]
* [[Visit Verdant]]
* [[Delacroix Family]]

[[Category:Characters]]