Jacobite loyalist, though by religion a Protestant. Convicted of High Treason in a plot to overthrow William & Mary and reinstate James II. Executed at Tyburn.
Son of Alice and Andrew Ashton. He married Mary Rigby on 17 Dec 1685. They had four children: Sir James Ashton, John Ashton died at one day old in 1686, Edward Ashton also died young in 1689 and Mary Ann Isabella Margaretta Beatrix Ashton b1689, who married the Rev. Richard Venn. He is the 4th great-grandfather of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
He appears to have held a commission of captain or major in the army. He was employed firstly (1682) as a Clerk to the Commissioners of the Revenue and Household of James, Duke of York (later James II) and secondly to Queen Mary (Modena), second wife to James II in 1687 as Clerk of the Council. He stated at his trial in 1690 he had been in the employ of the Royal family for 16 years (aged 21).
At his death at the gallows, Tyburn, he handed a letter to the people accompanying him. The letter stated 'he was happy in losing his life in James II's service, from whom he had received favours 'for sixteen years past'. Published widely, the letter inflamed the Jacobites, which worried the establishment and the court of William and Mary. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was the only one of three on whom the sentence of death was carried out. He became a symbol of martyrdom for the Jacobite cause.
His wife on pleading for mercy, he was hung, not drawn and quartered as had been sentenced. His body was given back to the family the day after the execution and he was buried in the Rigby family vault at St Faith under St Paul's that night.
His children's information is from a book "The Venn Family Annals" page 48 (1).
Contributor: Paul Doodson (48461077)
Son of Alice and Andrew Ashton. He married Mary Rigby on 17 Dec 1685. They had four children: Sir James Ashton, John Ashton died at one day old in 1686, Edward Ashton also died young in 1689 and Mary Ann Isabella Margaretta Beatrix Ashton b1689, who married the Rev. Richard Venn. He is the 4th great-grandfather of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
He appears to have held a commission of captain or major in the army. He was employed firstly (1682) as a Clerk to the Commissioners of the Revenue and Household of James, Duke of York (later James II) and secondly to Queen Mary (Modena), second wife to James II in 1687 as Clerk of the Council. He stated at his trial in 1690 he had been in the employ of the Royal family for 16 years (aged 21).
At his death at the gallows, Tyburn, he handed a letter to the people accompanying him. The letter stated 'he was happy in losing his life in James II's service, from whom he had received favours 'for sixteen years past'. Published widely, the letter inflamed the Jacobites, which worried the establishment and the court of William and Mary. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was the only one of three on whom the sentence of death was carried out. He became a symbol of martyrdom for the Jacobite cause.
His wife on pleading for mercy, he was hung, not drawn and quartered as had been sentenced. His body was given back to the family the day after the execution and he was buried in the Rigby family vault at St Faith under St Paul's that night.
His children's information is from a book "The Venn Family Annals" page 48 (1).
Contributor: Paul Doodson (48461077)
Jacobite loyalist, though by religion a Protestant. Convicted of High Treason in a plot to overthrow William & Mary and reinstate James II. Executed at Tyburn.
Son of Alice and Andrew Ashton. He married Mary Rigby on 17 Dec 1685. They had four children: Sir James Ashton, John Ashton died at one day old in 1686, Edward Ashton also died young in 1689 and Mary Ann Isabella Margaretta Beatrix Ashton b1689, who married the Rev. Richard Venn. He is the 4th great-grandfather of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
He appears to have held a commission of captain or major in the army. He was employed firstly (1682) as a Clerk to the Commissioners of the Revenue and Household of James, Duke of York (later James II) and secondly to Queen Mary (Modena), second wife to James II in 1687 as Clerk of the Council. He stated at his trial in 1690 he had been in the employ of the Royal family for 16 years (aged 21).
At his death at the gallows, Tyburn, he handed a letter to the people accompanying him. The letter stated 'he was happy in losing his life in James II's service, from whom he had received favours 'for sixteen years past'. Published widely, the letter inflamed the Jacobites, which worried the establishment and the court of William and Mary. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was the only one of three on whom the sentence of death was carried out. He became a symbol of martyrdom for the Jacobite cause.
His wife on pleading for mercy, he was hung, not drawn and quartered as had been sentenced. His body was given back to the family the day after the execution and he was buried in the Rigby family vault at St Faith under St Paul's that night.
His children's information is from a book "The Venn Family Annals" page 48 (1).
Contributor: Paul Doodson (48461077)
Son of Alice and Andrew Ashton. He married Mary Rigby on 17 Dec 1685. They had four children: Sir James Ashton, John Ashton died at one day old in 1686, Edward Ashton also died young in 1689 and Mary Ann Isabella Margaretta Beatrix Ashton b1689, who married the Rev. Richard Venn. He is the 4th great-grandfather of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
He appears to have held a commission of captain or major in the army. He was employed firstly (1682) as a Clerk to the Commissioners of the Revenue and Household of James, Duke of York (later James II) and secondly to Queen Mary (Modena), second wife to James II in 1687 as Clerk of the Council. He stated at his trial in 1690 he had been in the employ of the Royal family for 16 years (aged 21).
At his death at the gallows, Tyburn, he handed a letter to the people accompanying him. The letter stated 'he was happy in losing his life in James II's service, from whom he had received favours 'for sixteen years past'. Published widely, the letter inflamed the Jacobites, which worried the establishment and the court of William and Mary. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was the only one of three on whom the sentence of death was carried out. He became a symbol of martyrdom for the Jacobite cause.
His wife on pleading for mercy, he was hung, not drawn and quartered as had been sentenced. His body was given back to the family the day after the execution and he was buried in the Rigby family vault at St Faith under St Paul's that night.
His children's information is from a book "The Venn Family Annals" page 48 (1).
Contributor: Paul Doodson (48461077)
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