1. Has anyone seen Avast exhibit this sort of behavior with an email app? It seemed to suddenly take over Thunderbird, and find "Threats" that were years old...
Avast may not had the signature for the file when you recived that mail
2. Any thoughts as to whether JS:LockyDownloader [Trj] is a false positive, or actual ransomware? Unfortunately, when I restored the Clonezilla Image, it of course overwrote all data on the HD, so I cannot submit the Virus Chest JS:LockyDownloader [Trj] info to Avast.
It is not the ransomware, as the name say it is the file that will download and run the ransomware (LockyDownloader)

Was it a false positive?
Only way to find out is if you have the file and can upload it to virustotal.com or send it to avast lab, if you deleted it then that option is gone