and for a time belonged to a small sect called 'Freethinking Christians.' He ceased to be a member of any sect, though he regarded his political principles as the logical outcome of the doctrine of human brotherhood. He was much influenced by the political writings of Paine and Franklin. He was an enthusiastic radical, spending both money and labour to advance the cause. His house was one of the first to announce upon its walls that it would pay no taxes till the Reform Bill (of 1832) was passed. He was an active member of the common council, and, as undersheriff for one year, witnessed an execution, which intensified his horror of capital punishment. In 1832 he published the Corporation Register,' advocating reforms in the city, and especially in the court of aldermen. He took an active part in the agitation against church rates. He refused to pay them himself. He published pamphlets in 1835, 1837, and 1839, denouncing the imprisonment of Mr. Childs at Bungay, supporting an agitation in Southwark, and attacking a petition for the imprisonment of John Thoroughgood, who had refused to pay at Chelmsford. He also conducted the well-known Braintree case to a successful result. dependence. He had long been a friend of Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and other abolitionists. He paid a visit to America, and saw Garrison in his home. His health suffered from the journey, and broke down completely on the death of his wife soon after. He died on 13 Oct. 1855. [Private information.] ASHWARDBY, JOHN (A. 1392), a follower of Wycliffe, is described by Tanner (Biblioth. Brit.-Hib. p. 53), no doubt by an inference from his surname, as a Lincolnshire man. He became fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, 'master of theology,' and vicar of St. Mary's church. Attaching himself to Wycliffe's party, he appears to have been active in preaching, lecturing, and writing, as an and he engaged in controversy with the opponent specially of the mendicant orders, Carmelite, Richard Maydeston, a chaplain of John of Gaunt. In spite of this, however, he filled the office of 'commissary' or vicechancellor of the university in 1392 (WOOD, Fasti Oron. p. 33). [The sole authority for Ashwardby's biography, with the exception of the particular last menAshurst supplied the funds and the labour tioned, is Bishop Bale, in his Script. Illustr. Catal., cent. vi. 85, and in an autograph notice of procuring the evidence in favour of Row-in one of the blank leaves of the Fasciculus land Hill's scheme of postal reform when be- Zizaniorum, MS. Bodl. e Mus. 86 f. 55, col. 1. fore the parliamentary committee. He was The former contains a list of Ashwardby's writa warm supporter of co-operation, and for ings, none of which are otherwise known.] a time carried on the 'Spirit of the Age,' founded under Robert Owen's influence, till he disapproved of the spirit in which it was written. The friendship with Owen remained unbroken. Ashurst defended many men whom he believed to have been the victims of injustice or oppression, amongst others Mr. G. J. Holyoake on his imprisonment in 1842, who afterwards owed much to his friendship. He was an outspoken advocate of the political and social equality of the sexes. He brought up his daughters in habits of independent thought and action. When asked why he had taken up the cause of women's rights, he would say that he had seen a girl tried for child-murder, who had been betrayed by a man, was convicted by men, sentenced by a man, and hanged by a man. 'It made me think. The cause represented his strongest convictions. The opening of Mazzini's letters in 1844 led to a friendship with Ashurst. In 1851 and 1852 Ashurst was a founder of the society of the Friends of Italy' and of the People's International League.' He cordially welcomed many of the refugees at that time. He was a warm admirer of American institutions and of the principles of the Declaration of In R. L. P. ASHWELL, ARTHUR RAWSON (1824-1879), canon residentiary and principal of the Theological College, Chichester, was born at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. In 1843 he entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1846 was elected foundation scholar of Caius College. In 1847 he graduated as fifteenth wrangler, and in 1848 he received holy orders, and became curate of Speldhurst, Kent. In the following year he returned to Cambridge as curate of St. Mary the Less, in order that he might study theology under the direction of the late Professor Blunt. In 1851 he was appointed vice-principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea, and in 1853, partly through the instrumentality of Canon Butler of Wantage, he was appointed by Bishop Wilberforce principal of the newlyfounded Oxford Diocesan Training College at Culham. Here he remained for several years, and, besides his work in the college, assisted the bishop in organising a system of diocesan inspection. In 1854 he married Miss Elizabeth Fixsen, of Blackheath, who survives him. In 1862 his health compelled him to retire to lighter work, and for two well made his influence deeply felt. His [Canon Ashwell's writings, passim; obituary years he was minister of Holy Trinity Church, Conduit Street, Hanover Square; but in 1865 he returned to his old occupation, accepting the principalship of the Training College, Durham. The fame of his success at Durham led Bishop Durnford, an entire stranger to him, to offer him in 1870 the principalship of the Theological College, Chichester, with a canonry attached, and he also held for a short time the rectory of St. Martin's (1871-5), and that of St. Andrew's (1872-5), in that city. Canon Ashwell was active in literature. In 1864 he became editor of the Literary Churchman,' which office he held for twelve years, when he became (1876) editor of the Church Quarterly Review,' and a little while before his death he also resumed the editorship of the 'Literary Churchman.' To both these periodicals he was a regular contributor. He was also a contributor to the third series of Tracts for the Christian Seasons;' and he wrote occasionally for the 'Quarterly Review' and the Monthly Packet.' He was also in great ASHWELL, GEORGE (1612–1695), request as a preacher in his own cathedral Anglo-catholic controversialist, born in the and elsewhere. He was, moreover, a frequent parish of St. Martin Ludgate, 8 Nov. 1612, reader and speaker at church congresses, and was the son of Robert Ashwell, of Haran effective conductor of mission services. row. He was a scholar of Wadham College, It is no wonder that his constitution was Oxford, 1627; graduated B.A. 4 Dec. 1632, impaired by this excessive work, and that he M.A. 1635, and became fellow of his college. succumbed to an attack of congestion of the He was tutor in the family of Thomas Leigh, lungs, which prematurely cut short a most a nonconformist, but his own sympathies active and useful life on 23 Oct. 1879. A were of another sort. He was the friend of window and a lectern in Chichester Cathe- Heylin, who wrote, at his suggestion, on dral perpetuate his memory in a spot of Parliament's Power in Laws for Religion," which he had been a distinguished ornament. which was published in 1645. He was made Canon Ashwell achieved reputation as a B.D. on 23 June 1646, and became chaplain writer, a preacher, and a teacher. Some of to Sir Anthony Cope, lord of the manor of his periodical essays excited much attention. Hanwell, Oxfordshire. On the death of Dr. His articles upon Dr. Farrar's 'Life of Christ' Robert Harris, 1658, he succeeded him in in the second number of the 'Church Quar- the rectory of Hanwell, where he died on terly Review,' and upon the State of the 8 Feb. 1694-5. He published: 1. 'Fides ApoChurch' in the July number of the 'Quarterly stolica, or a Discourse asserting the received Review,' 1874, excited much interest. His authors and authority of the Apostles' Creed article on Samuel Wilberforce in the April with a double appendix, the first touchnumber, 1874, of the same Review was the ing the Athanasian, the second touching the main cause of his being asked to write the Nicene Creed,' 1653 (this was attacked by bishop's life; and several of his educational Baxter, in his Reformed Pastor,' 1656, for articles attracted unusual attention. His which Baxter expresses regret in his 'Catholongest consecutive work was the first volume lick Theologie,' 1675). 2. 'Gestus Euchaof the 'Life of Bishop Wilberforce' (1880). risticus, or a Discourse concerning the GesAs a preacher Canon Ashwell was ex- ture at the receiving of the Holy Eucharist,' tremely acceptable, especially among the 1663 (dedicated to his patron, Sir A. Cope). more thoughtful and educated congregations. 3. 'De Socino et Socinianismo Dissertatio, His little volume of printed sermons, en- 1680 (suggested by the wide diffusion of titled 'God in Nature,' is full of striking and English translations of Socinian books, and original ideas, expressed tersely and inci- remarkable for its high tribute to the genius sively, and evidently with a view to arrest and character of Lelio and Fausto Sozzini). 4. 'De Ecclesia Romana Dissertatio,' 1688 (this and the foregoing were portions of a much larger work in manuscript, ' De Judice or even force attention. As a trainer, first of future schoolmasters, and then of future clergymen, Canon Ash Controversiarum et Catholicæ Veritatis Regula;' they were published at the suggestion of Dr. Gilbert Ironside, warden of Wadham). 5. The History of Hai Eb'n Yockdan, an Indian Prince, or the Self-taught Philosopher,' 1686, at the end of which is Theologia Ruris .. or the book of Nature leading us by certain degrees to the knowledge and worship of the God of Nature.' The Yokdan fiction was translated by Ashwell from Edward Pococke's Latin version from the Arabic of Abú Bakr ibn Al-Tufail (Abú Jafar); it is remarkable as having supplied Robert Barclay (Apology, prop. v. vi. § xxvii.) with a proof of his doctrine of the Inner Light; the passage was withdrawn by the Society of Friends, 1779. Ashwell left behind him in manuscript, An Answer to [Hew Nevill's] Plato Redivivus.' [Wood's Athenæ Ox. (Bliss), ii. 911-2; Smith's Catalogue of Friends' Books.] A. G. ASHWELL, JOHN (d. 1541 ?), prior of Newnham Abbey, in Bedfordshire, best known for his opposition to the principles of the Reformation, was a graduate of Cambridge University. In 1504 it is probable that Ashwell, who was then a bachelor of divinity, became rector of Mistley in Essex, and held in subsequent years the benefices of Littlebury and Halstead in the same county. In 1515 we know him to have been appointed chaplain to Lord Abergavenny's troops in France (BREWER'S Letters of Henry VIII, ii. part i. 137), and six years later a prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral was conferred upon him. He became prior of Newnham Abbey about 1527. In the same year he addressed a secret letter, written partly in Latin and partly in English, to John Longland, the Bishop of Lincoln, bitterly complaining of the heretical opinions held by George Joye, a bold advocate of Lutheranism, with whom he had lived on terms of great intimacy [see JOYE, GEORGE]. The epistle unhappily fell into Joye's hands, and the reformer withdrew to Strasburg to escape the effects of the bishop's displeasure. There, however, he published Ashwell's letter, together with an elaborate reply to all the charges preferred against him. The pamphlet, of which very few copies are now extant, bears the title "The Letter whyche Johan Ashwell, Priour of Newnham Abbey besydes Bedforde, sente secretly to the Byshope of Lyncolne in the yeare of our Lord MDXXVII. Where in the sayde Priour accuseth George Joye, that tyme beyng felow of Peter College in Cambridge of fower opinions; with the Answere of the sayde George unto the same opinions.' The colophon runs: At Strazburge 10 daye of June. Thys lytell boke be delyvered to Johan Ashwell at Newnham Abbey besyde Bedforde with spede.' One of the most singular passages in the book is Ashwell's earnest entreaty to the bishop 'that no creature maye know that I or any of mine do shew you of these thinges, for then I shal leusse the favor of many in my contree'-a passage clearly showing that the Reformation in England was eagerly expected by the prior's neighbours. A second edition of the pamphlet was published by Joye at Antwerp in 1531. Ashwell apparently somewhat modified his opinions with the times, and in 1534 he was among the first to take the oath of supremacy to Henry VIII as head of the church. But he appears to have resigned the post of prior of Newnham before 1539, when the monasteries were finally dissolved. His death took place shortly before 23 Aug. 1541, when the prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he had held for twenty years, was declared vacant and filled up. [Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrig. i. 59 and 530; Rymer's Fœdera, xiv. 507; Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, ii. 386; Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Caley and Ellis, vi. 373; Newcourt, Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1710), i. 149, ii. 299, 394; Brit. Museum Catal.; Retrospective Review (new series) ii. 96-102.] S. L. L. ASHWOOD, BARTHOLOMEW (1622– 1680), puritan divine, was a Warwickshire man,' son of a clergyman of the same name (who matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1591, also as a Warwickshire man, aged 13, and proceeded M.A. in 1601). He became a batter or commoner of St. Alban's Hall in the latter end of 1638, aged 16 years, and so was born 1621-2. But Anthony à Wood informs us: Having been puritanically educated, he was translated, after some continuance in the said hall, to Exeter College, and there put under a tutor puritanically then esteem'd, and took one degree in arts as a member of that college, and was soon beneficed and became a man of the times.' His 'benefice' was Bickleigh, Devonshire, and he is enrolled by Walker as one of the loyalist sufferers' (p. 182) of that parish. Walker assumes that he 'died under the usurpation,' i.e. the Commonwealth. But he lived to form one of the 'two thousand by being ejected' in 1662 from Axminster in Devonshire. He continued to preach for many years, in spite of the severe restrictions imposed on nonconformists In his old age he seems to have been left in sore straits, and died about 1680.' His three books are: (1) The Heavenly Trade, or the Best Mer 6 chandizing, the only way to live well in impoverishing Times, a Discourse occasion'd from the Decay of earthly Trades and visible Wasts of practical Piety in the Days we live in, offering Arguments and Counsells to all, towards a speedy Revival of dying Godliness,' &c. (1679); (2) The Best Treasure, or the Way to be truly Rich, being a Discourse on Ephesians iii. 8, wherein is opened and commended to Saints and Sinners the personal and purchased Riches of Christ as the best Treasure to be possessed' (1681); and (3) 'Groans for Sin' (1681). Rarely to be met with now, they prove him to have been a thinker of considerable originality, not without touches of graceful imaginativeness. Dr. John Owen wrote an admirable preface to the 'Best Treasure.' [Calamy and Palmer's Nonconf. Mem. (1802), ii. 3; Reynolds's Life of John Ashwood; Walker's Sufferings; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iii. 1272–3.] A. B. G. ASHWOOD, JOHN (1657-1706), nonconformist minister, was born at Axminster in 1657, and was the son of Bartholomew Ashwood [q.v.]. In his youth he was extremely delicate. He was educated by his father, and admitted as a member of his father's church.' Soon after he was sent to London, where he was received into the family of the learned Theophilus Gale, who acted as his instructor. Before he began to preach he taught a school at Axminster, and afterwards at Chard. Being driven from the latter as a conscience-ruled nonconformist by highchurch intolerance, he determined along with some friends to emigrate to Carolina in January 1683, but was prevented by a sudden attack of smallpox. He then appears to have resided successively at Ilminster, Haveland, and Buckland, until he received a call' to Exeter, where, his biographer tells us, he was 'a vigilant and faithful minister for about the space of ten years.' He subsequently returned to London. For about two years he was evening lecturer at Spitalfields, and morning preacher at Hoxton, when he received a call' from a congregation at Peckham, Surrey. He died there on 22 Sept. 1706. His Life" was for long a favourite fireside companion among devout nonconformists, circulating as a chap-book, viz. Some Account of the Life, Character, and Death of the Rev. Mr. John Ashwood,' by Thomas Reynolds (1707). Added to the Account are two very admirable sermons 'preached a little before he died.' [Authorities given under BARTHOLOMEW ASHWOOD; Reynolds's Account of Life.] A. B. G. ASHWORTH, CALEB, D.D. (1722– 1775), dissenting tutor, was born at CloughFold, Rossendale, Lancashire, in 1722. The date rests on Palmer's statement that he was but fifty-three years of age' at death, and on the monumental inscription given in Baker's Northamptonshire (i. 332). His father, Richard Ashworth, who died in 1751, aged eighty-four, was a lay preacher among the Particular Baptists; he had three sons Thomas, Particular Baptist minister at Heckmondwike; Caleb; and John, General Baptist minister, colleague of Dr. James Foster (Pope's modest Foster), who preached his funeral sermon in 1742. Caleb was originally a carpenter; he probably was not in sympathy with his father's views, and thus did not at first turn to the ministry. He was afterwards educated for the independent ministry, under Doddridge, at Northampton, where he first took up his quarters in 1739; and settled at Daventry in 1746, originally as assistant to James Floyd. Under Doddridge's will the management of the academy was left to Ashworth, and, as the Northampton congregation did not elect him their minister, he removed it to Daventry in 1752. He obtained the degree of D.D. from Scotland in 1759. He had married a Miss Hemings, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. His son John entered Daventry academy in 1760, but became a grazier. Ashworth died on 18 July 1775. Under him Daventry academy became a chief seat of culture among the liberal independents and presbyterians, who at that time were closely fused, and partook of the same type of theology and church polity. A list of his students may be found in 'Monthly Repository,' 1822. His most distinguished scholar was Priestley, who says that Ashworth took the orthodox side of every question' in theology and philosophy, the sub-tutor, Samuel Clark, that of heresy." Doddridge's plan of referring to authors on all sides of every question, and requiring his students to give an account of them, was faithfully pursued by his successors, with the result of much independence of judgment. A pupil (Rev. T. Thomas, in Month. Rep., 1814, p. 79) says: Under Dr. Doddridge there was a more popular exterior; under Dr. Ashworth a more disciplined interior." The defect of the academy was the neglect of languages [see ALEXANDER, JOHN, 1736– 1765], biblical criticism, and ecclesiastical history; its staple was dogmatics and philo sophy, including psychology (then called pneumatology), ethics, and physics. AshWorth published for his academy a Hebrew Grammar, and a treatise on Plane Trigo ASHWORTH, SIR CHARLES (d. 1832), major-general, was appointed ensign in the 68th foot in 1798; lieutenant in 1799; captain 55th foot in 1801; major 6th West India regiment in 1808; major 62nd foot in 1808; a lieutenant-colonel with the Portuguese army in 1810; and served as brigadiergeneral at the battles of Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and St. Pierre, where he was badly wounded. He took part in the combat of Buenza and succeeding engagements, for which he was honoured with a cross, and allowed, 14 Nov. 1814, to accept the order of the Tower and Sword from the Prince Regent of Portugal. He attained the rank of colonel in 1814, and major-general in 1825; was nominated a companion of the Bath in 1815; a knight commander on the occasion of the coronation of William IV in September 1831; and died at Hall Place, St. John's Wood, on 13 Aug. 1832. [Gentleman's Mag. vol. cii. part ii. p. 187; Napier's History of the Peninsular War,book xxiii. vol. vi. p. 396.j A. S. B. ASHWORTH, HENRY (1785-1811), lieutenant in the navy, was born in London, December 1785. In November 1799 he entered on board the 38-gun frigate Hussar, under the immediate patronage of the first lieutenant, and four years later was serving as midshipman on board the same ship when she was lost on the Saintes, near Brest, on 8 Feb. 1804. Whilst prisoner of war, Mr. Ashworth made several remarkable attempts to recover his freedom; and at last, having escaped from Bitche in December 1808, he succeeded in passing through Germany to Trieste, where he got on board the English frigate L'Unité. In the October following he was promoted to be a lieutenant, and was serving in that rank in the Centaur of 74 guns, on the coast of Spain, when the French took Tarragona, on 28 June 1811, and drove a number of the panic-stricken inhabitants, literally, into the sea. Lieutenant Ashworth had command of one of the boats sent to rescue these drowning wretches, and, whilst so employed, received a wound, of which he died a month later, at Minorca, 25 July 1811. ASHWORTH, HENRY (1794-1880), friend of Cobden and vigorous supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League, was born at Birtwistle, near Bolton, Lancashire, on 4 Sept. 1794, and coming of quaker parentage was in due course sent to Ackworth school. After leaving that famous academy of the Friends he, in partnership with his brother Edmund, managed their extensive mills at Turton, where they distinguished themselves by their careful provision for the well-being of those whom they employed, and for whose benefit they established excellent schools, library, and reading room. Ashworth was a staunch nonconformist, and resolutely refused to pay church rates. He was a founder of the Anti-Corn Law League, and was one of its warmest supporters both by money and personal influence and exertion. He had made Cobden's acquaintance in 1837, and was ever after his firm friend. In 1840 he was one of a deputation that waited upon Lord Melbourne to urge the repeal of the corn laws. You know,' said the premier, 'that to be impracticable.' Sir Robert Peel was equally unpleasant. In answer to Mr. Ashworth's plea that the import of food should not be restricted in order to uphold rents, Sir James Graham called out, 'Why, you are a leveller!' and asked whether he was to infer that the labouring classes had some claim to the landlords' estates. The prosperous manufacturer was naturally somewhat startled at this unexpected phrase, and protested against its injustice. In dismissing the deputation Sir James told them that if the corn laws were repealed great disasters would fall upon the country, the land would go out of cultivation, church and state could not be upheld, the national institutions would be reduced to their elements, and the houses of the leaguers would be pulled about their ears by the people they were trying to excite. In 1843, in company with Bright and Cobden, he visited Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and East Lothian, to obtain information as to the position of agriculture, and they were sometimes mentioned as the A B C of the league gone to study farming. Mr. John Bright, speaking at the opening banquet at the Manchester Town Hall in 1877, described a visit in company with Ashworth and others to the ruins of Tantallon Castle: 'As we walked amongst those |