session of his premises, and obtained payment land, and at the chief towns presented a of rent for the whole period of their occupa- medley entertainment of humorous scenes tion by the troops of the Revolution. With from various plays, with songs and dialogue great difficulty he made his escape from Paris of his own composition' to fill up the chinks upon the issue of the decree for the deten- of the slender meal.' The 'Spectator' for tion of all English subjects in France. In 1 Jan. 1712 contained the advertisement of 1803 the amphitheatre was again destroyed the popular comedian, Richard Estcourt, that by fire, Astley's loss being estimated at he was about to open the Bumper Tavern in 25,0001. Forthwith he laid the first stone of James Street, Covent Garden, and that his a new building, which was completed in time wines would be sold with the utmost fidelity to open on Easter Monday, 1804. Astley by his old servant, Trusty Antony-it has now retired from active management in fa- been presumed that Aston was referred to— vour of his son, receiving, however, one clear who had so often adorned both the theatres half of the annual profits. He next at- in England and Ireland.' In 1717 he is said tempted to establish an amphitheatre on the to have performed three times a week at the Middlesex side of the Thames, and obtaining Globe and Marlborough Taverns in Fleet a license through the influence of Queen Street. In 1735 he petitioned the House of Charlotte for music, dancing, burlettas, pan- Commons to be heard against the Bill introtomimes, and equestrian exhibitions, he duced by Sir John Barnard for restraining opened the Olympic Pavilion on the site of the number of theatres, and for the better the present Olympic Theatre. By this ven- regulating of common players of interludes, ture he lost 10,0007. In 1812 he sold the when he was permitted to deliver a ludicrous Olympic Pavilion to Elliston for 2,8007. and speech upon the subject, which was aftera small annuity to be paid during the life of wards published in folio. Chetwood, whose Astley. There was but one payment of the history was published in 1749, believed that annuity. Astley died in Paris, aged 72, and Aston was then living and travelling still. was buried in the cemetery of Père-la-Chaise. and as well known as the post-horse that His son, Young Astley,' also an admired carries the mail.' Aston's Brief Suppleequestrian performer, to whom he had be- ment' contains interesting mentions of Betqueathed the interest arising from his some- terton, Mrs. Bracegirdle, and others. He was what encumbered property, survived seven the author of 'Love in a Hurry,' a comedy years only. He also died in Paris, and was performed without success at the Smock interred beside his father in Père-la-Chaise. Alley Theatre, Dublin, about 1709; and of Philip Astley was the best horse-tamer of his 'Pastora, or the Coy Shepherdess,' an opera time. He usually bought his horses in Smith- performed by the Duke of Richmond's serfield, caring, as he said, 'little for shape, vants at Tunbridge Wells in 1712. The make, or colour: temper was the only consi-Fool's Opera, or the Taste of the Age, deration.' He rarely gave more than five pounds for a horse. He was a man of violent temper, peremptory of speech and rude of manner, but of great energy and notable integrity; and he was regarded with affection by the members of his company. He constructed in all nineteen amphitheatres for equestrian exhibitions.

ASTON, ANTHONY (A. 1712-1731), dramatist and actor, was the son of a gentleman who had been master of the Plea Office in the King's Bench, and was educated as an attorney. He is said to have played in all the London theatres, but never continued long in any. In a pamphlet of 24 pages, entitled 'A brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esquire, his Lives of the Famous Actors and Actresses,' and written apparently about 1747, Aston states that he came on the stage at the latter end of the reign of William III. With his wife and son he travelled through Eng

printed in 1731, written by Matthew Medley and performed by his company in Oxford," has also been attributed to Aston.

[Chetwood's History of the Stage, 1749.]

D. C.

ASTON, SIR ARTHUR (d. 1649), royalist general, was the younger of the two sons of Sir Arthur Aston, knight, of Fulham, Middlesex, by his first wife, Christiana, daughter. of John Ashton, of Penrith, Cumberland, and grandson of Sir Thomas Aston, knight, of Aston, in Bucklow hundred, Cheshire, in which county the ancient and knightly family' of Aston had long flourished. Probably he was a native of Fulham, but nothing is recorded concerning his birthplace or education. He went to Russia during the unsettled state of that kingdom which preceded and followed the assumption of the throne by Michael Federowitz in 1613. He was accompanied by a certain number of men, captains, and commanders, and furnished with letters of recommendation from James I, and he pro

[Memoir by G. Steinman-Steinman, in Gent. Mag. n. s. i. 144, 234; Kippis's Biog. Brit.; Notes and Queries, viii. 126, 302, 480, 629; Clarendon's

Hist. of the Rebellion; Coates's Hist. of Reading, 24 seq.; Addit. MS. 18980 ff. 22, 43; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 77; Life of Anthony & Wood, ed. Bliss, p. xx; Dodd's Church Hist. Letters and Speeches (1850), ii. 205; Faulkner's iii. 57; Calendars of State Papers; Cromwell's Fulham, 306.]

T. C.

was appointed governor of Oxford on the death of Sir William Pennyman. Here, on 1 May following, the degree of M.D. was conferred upon him by the university. On 19 Sept. 1644 he was thrown from his horse and broke his leg; gangrene set in, and amputation was performed on 7 Dec. This accident was regarded by the puritans (VICARS, Looking-glass for Malignants, 1645) as a judgment of God against Aston for an act of revolting cruelty which he had perpe- ASTON, or ASHTON, JOHN (ƒ. 1382), trated a short time before in adjudging that one of Wycliffe's earliest followers, is dea soldier, against whom he bore a grudge, scribed as M.A. and scholar' (or, once, should have his right hand sawn off. As bachelor') in theology at Oxford, and, acSir Arthur thus became incapable of dis- cording to Anthony à Wood (History and charging the active duties of his office, the king Antiquities of the University of Oxford, i. removed him from the command (25 Dec.), 492, ed. Gutch), was a member of Merton conferring upon him a pension of 1,000l. a College. He appears first to have been enyear. He was removed, says Anthony àgaged as one of Wycliffe's band of itinerant Wood, 'to the great rejoycing of the soldiers and others in Oxford, having expressed himself very cruel and imperious while he executed that office.'

In November 1646 we find Aston in Ireland with the Marquis of Ormonde, with whom he probably returned to England on the delivery of Dublin to the parliament. It seems likely that, after the execution of the king, he joined the marquis in Ireland on his resuming the government there. Certain it is, that on 27 July 1649 he sat on a council of war convened by the lord-lieutenant. Being left with a garrison of 3,000 men in defence of Drogheda or Tredagh, Sir Arthur three times repulsed the army of General Cromwell, which approached the works 8 Sept. 1649. This determined perseverance, however, eventually proved unsuccessful. The town was entered on the 10th. No quarter was given, and only about thirty persons escaped, who, with several hundreds of the Irish nation, were shipped off as slaves to the island of Barbadoes (DODD, Church History, iii. 58). Aston perished in the butchery. He was hacked to pieces, and his brains were beaten out with his wooden leg.

Clarendon remarks that the king, in all his armies, had but one general officer of the catholic religion, 'Sir Arthur Aston, whom the papists, notwithstanding, would not acknowledge for a papist. The same writer, referring to Aston's appointment as governor of Oxford, says he had the fortune to be very much esteemed where he was not known, and very much detested where he was; and he was at this time too well known at Oxford to be beloved by any.' Clarendon adds that he was a man of a rough nature, and so given up to an immoderate love of money that he cared not by what unrighteous ways

he exacted it.'

priests, and by the year 1382 had become conspicuous for his advocacy of his master's views, particularly of those relating to the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Knighton (col. 2658, sq.) describes the zeal with which he carried on his mission as a preacher of the new doctrine, and the author of the 'Fasciculi Zizaniorum' (p. 274) makes the well-known rebel, John Ball, in his confession, name Aston in company with Nicholas Hereford and Lawrence Bedeman as the leaders of Wycliffe's party. In 1382 these three men, together with Philip Repyngdon, were singled out among the Oxford Wycliffites as the subjects of a prosecution at the hands of Archbishop Courtney, who first issued, 12 June, an ineffectual mandate restraining them from public functions in the university, and then summoned them to an examination to be held before him at the Blackfriars Priory in London. Wycliffe's specific doctrines had, in fact, been already condemned at the earthquake 'coun cil of Blackfriars in the preceding month, and there was little difficulty in implicating his disciples in them. Aston appeared on 18 June. He circulated a broadsheet declaring his al legiance to the faith of the church, and won so much sympathy that his final hearing on the 20th was interrupted and nearly broken up by the invasion of a friendly mob. He was, however, condemned, and, by virtue of a subsequent royal patent, dated 13 July, was expelled from his university. By the archbishop's order a search was then made for him and his companions, and at length, in October, Aston was seized. On 27 Nov. he followed the example of Bedeman and Repyngdon (Hereford had left the country), recanted, and returned to Oxford. His re cantation, however, was transient. In 1387 Bishop Wakefield of Worcester denounced him as a dangerous Lollard, and prohibited

him from preaching. According to Foxe (Acts, iii. 47, ed. Townsend) he was cited and condemned later by Archbishop Arundel; but this statement seems to rest upon the notice in the St. Albans Chronicles (WALSINGHAM, ii. 65 sq., ed. Riley; Chronicon Angliæ, 1328-1388, p. 350, ed. Thompson) of the popular disturbance at his trial, which evidently relates to that held by Archbishop Courtney (cf. Fasc. Ziz. p. 329).

A few writings by Aston are enumerated by Bale (Scriptorum Illustrium Catalogus, p. 495, ed. Basle, 1559).

The name is spelled variously. The authorities last mentioned give Astone;' the Fasciculi Zizaniorum' alternate between 'Astone' and 'Aston;' while the Lambeth registers (see Fasc. Ziz., p. 310, n. 8) have Ashton,' and Wilkins prints Asshton.' Other forms are 'Ayston (WOOD, l. c.) and Ayshton' (TANNER, Bibl. Brit.-Hib., p. 54). [Fasciculi Zizaniorum, pp. 273-90, 309-14, 329-33 (ed. Shirley, Rolls series); Knighton, De Event. Angl., coll. 2656-9 (in Twysden's Decem Scriptores); Wilkins's Concil. Magn. Brit. iii. 157-69, 202 et seq. (1737); J. Lewis's Life of Wielif, pp. 262-6, ed. Oxford, 1820; Lechler's John Wiclif and his English Precursors, pp. 215-22, 433-9, Engl. tr., ed. 1881.]

R. L. P.

edition, 1815, 3rd, with plates, 1826; 'History and Description of the Collegiate Church of Christ, Manchester;' Lancashire Gazetteer,' 1st edition 1808, 2nd 1822; 'An Heroic Epistle from the Quadruple Obelisk in the Market Place to the New Exchange,' 1809; A Descriptive Account of Manchester Exchange,' 1810; Metrical Records of Manchester, in which its History is traced (currente calamo) from the days of the ancient Britons to the present time,' 1822.

[Fishwick, Lancashire Library, 1875, 37, 119, and 285; Procter, Memorials of Manchester Streets, 1874, pp. 164-174; Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Montgomery, by John Holland and James Everett, 1854-56; Notes and Queries, vol. xii., 2nd series, 379, and vol. i., 3rd series, 97.] T. F. H.

ASTON, SIR RICHARD (d. 1778), judge, was a younger son of Richard Aston, Esq., of Wadley, Berks, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Warren, Esq., of Oxfordshire, grandson of Sir Willoughby Aston, Bart., and great-grandson of Sir Thomas Aston, created baronet by Charles I, sheriff of Cheshire in 1635, who exerted himself energetically on the side of the king in the constitutional struggle, and lost his life through a wound received in a skirmish in 1645, The Astons

ASTON, JOSEPH (1762–1844), journal- derived their name from Aston in Cheshire, ist, dramatist, and miscellaneous writer, was where the family had been settled since the born in 1762, the son of William Aston, time of Henry II. It is not known at what gunsmith, of Deansgate, in Manchester. date Richard Aston began practice as a barIn 1803 he opened a stationer's shop at rister. His name appears with tolerable 84 Deansgate, where, on 1 Jan. 1805, he frequency in the first volume of Sir James issued the prospectus of the Manchester Burrow's Reports of Cases in the King's Mail,' published at sixpence, and professing Bench' (1756-8), but seldom in connection 'no political creed.' From 1809 till 1825 he with cases of first-rate importance. He was publisher and editor of the 'Manchester became king's counsel in 1759, and in 1761 Exchange Herald,' a conservative journal. was made lord chief justice of the court of Afterwards he removed to Rochdale, where Common Pleas in Ireland, on the resignation he started the 'Rochdale Recorder.' He died of Sir William Yorke. In this office he at Chadderton Hall, 19 Oct. 1844, and was seems to have displayed considerable energy. buried at Tonge, adjoining Middleton. Aston Discovering that it was the practice of grand was the friend and executor of Thomas Bar-juries in that country to find bills of indictritt, the antiquary. For about thirty-four years he also enjoyed the closest intimacy with James Montgomery, the poet, and editor of the Sheffield Iris, who submitted to him most of his manuscripts for revision and criticism. He himself was a facile writer of verses, the majority of which appeared in his own paper. Of his dramatic pieces, Conscience,' a comedy, was performed at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, in 1815, with moderate success; and he also wrote Retributive Justice,' a tragedy, and A Family Story,' a comedy. His published works nearly all relate to Manchester. They include The Manchester Guide,' 1804, 2nd

ment upon the mere perusal of depositions without examining any witnesses, he set himself to reform so scandalous an abuse. He failed, however, to carry his colleagues with him, only two out of nine disapproving of the practice, which remained unaltered until 1816, when a bill making the examination of witnesses obligatory was introduced into the House of Commons by Horner and passed into law. Few English judges have been popular in Ireland, and Aston was not one of the few. Accordingly, on the resignation of Sir Thomas Denison, one of the judges of the King's Bench in England, which happened in 1765, he resigned his Irish post, and was

sentence of fine and imprisonment was passed upon Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke) for a seditious libel in advertising a subscription in relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellowsubjects, who, faithful to the character of Englishmen, and preferring death to slavery, were, for that reason only, inhumanly murdered by the king's troops at or near Lexington and Concord in the province of Massachusetts.' Aston was married twice, first to a Miss Eldred, and then to Rebecca, daughter of Dr. Rowland, a physician of Aylesbury, and widow of Sir David Williams, Bart., of Rose Hall, Herts. He is said to have been brusque in his manners. He died in 1778, leaving no issue by either of his wives.

[Burke's Extinct Baronetage, 23, 569; Wotton's Baronetage; Cal. of Home Office Papers, 1766-9, 1770-2; Hansard, xxxii. 548, 552; Horner's Life, Letter from Horner to Murray upon the Irish Jury Bill; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland, 311; Law and Lawyers (reputed author James Grant), ii. 140; Burrow's Settlement Cases, 533; Burrow's Reports, iv. 2527; Howell's State Trials, xix. 1085, 1098, 1109, 1116, xx. 787; Cr. Off. Min.

B. No. 2, fol. 16; Annual Reg. xiii. 186.]