Joseph Ashworth
Joseph Ashworth was probably born in England. His wife Sarah and his eldest son Samuel were both English-born, and his daughter Eliza was born in Pittsburgh in 1832. So the family probably crossed the Atlantic between about 1826 and 1832. No record found gives his own birthplace or the year he was born.
On 2 January 1841 he bought three lots in Reserve Township, Allegheny County, on the north side of the Allegheny River above Allegheny City. They were lots 9, 10 and 11 in Patterson's plan, bounded on the west by the New Franklin road. Each was sixty feet in front and two hundred and fifty feet deep. The lots had come through a sheriff's sale, the way land seized for debt was sold. The High Sheriff of Allegheny County had conveyed them to W. H. Lowrie in 1840, and Lowrie sold them to Joseph.
He and Sarah had eight children who lived to be named as his heirs. Nancy married John Guthrie and was living in Chicago by 1864. Samuel, born in England about 1826, stayed in Reserve Township. Robert married Frances and lived in Allegheny City. He was probably the Robert Ashworth, butcher, of Federal Street in the 1850 directory. Eliza Ann was born in Pittsburgh on 2 November 1832 and married Frederick Eshelman. Eliza Sarah, called Sarah, married Robert Thornburgh. Hannah Mary was born in 1836 and married John Benn. Joseph was born on 6 July 1837 and became an engine builder. Olive, the youngest, was born about 1843.
He died before July 1860, and he left no will. In the census that July his widow was living in Reserve Township and called herself a "Widow Lady". She held real estate worth $2,000, which was probably the three lots. Under the law the land passed to his eight children in equal shares, while his widow kept her dower. A dower was the part of a husband's land that his widow held for the rest of her life.
His children settled the land among themselves in 1864. On 2 January that year his widow and seven of the heirs deeded the three lots to Samuel for $2,700. Nancy and her husband acknowledged it at Chicago on 11 April, and the rest at Allegheny on 4 May. On 15 July Olive and her new husband, Robert M. McCowan, sold Samuel her eighth share for $337.50. That deed tells how the land had come down: the lots were those "of which the said Joseph Ashworth died seized intestate and which said lots by the death of the said Joseph Ashworth became vested in" his eight children, "subject to the dower interest of Sarah Ashworth widow of the said Joseph Ashworth."
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Cite: Heirology, "Joseph Ashworth", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joseph-ashworth-d95f61.