He fought in the Parliamentarian army in the English Civil War.
[1] His brothers included Henry Ashurst, a successful London merchant and John Ashurst, a Parliamentarian lieutenant-colonel and Governor of Liverpool.
[2] He was a major in the parliamentary army and a zealous puritan.
[1] In 1654 he was elected MP for Lancashire in the First Protectorate Parliament.
He married Dorothy Ellis and had a son Thomas.