| John Durant Ashmore | |
| State1: | South Carolina |
| Term Start1: | March 4, 1859 |
| Term End1: | December 21, 1860 |
| Predecessor1: | James L. Orr |
| Successor1: | District eliminated (Robert Smalls after district re-established in 1875) |
| Office2: | 13th Comptroller General of South Carolina |
| Term2: | 1853 - 1857 |
| Governor2: | John Lawrence Manning James Hopkins Adams Robert F.W. Allston |
| Office3: | Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives |
| Term3: | 1848 - 1853 |
| Birth Date: | 18 August 1819 |
| Birth Place: | Greenville District, South Carolina, US |
| Death Place: | Sardis, Mississippi, US |
| Resting Place: | Sardis, Mississippi, US |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Profession: | planter |
John Durant Ashmore (August 18, 1819 – December 5, 1871) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, and a cousin of Robert T. Ashmore.
Born in Greenville District, South Carolina, Ashmore attended the common schools. He studied law and was admitted to the bar but never practiced. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and owned slaves.[1] [2]
Ashmore served as member of the South Carolina House of Representatives 1848–1853 and as Comptroller General of South Carolina 1853–1857. Ashmore was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1859, until his resignation on December 21, 1860, upon the attempted secession of South Carolina from the United States of America.[3]
He served as chairman of the Committee on Mileage (Thirty-sixth Congress).
He ran a plantation, but his journals do not record how many slaves he owned.
During the Civil War, Ashmore was elected colonel of the Fourth South Carolina Regiment, but resigned before the regiment was called into service.[1] After the Civil War, he sought a pardon for having aided in rebellion.[4]
He died in Sardis, Mississippi, December 5, 1871. He was buried in Black Jack Cemetery, near Sardis, in Panola County, Mississippi.[1]