Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/175

Ashburnham  Court and impatient to be gone, commanded Ashburnham and his other confidants, Sir John Berkeley and Legge, to propose some place for him to go to. Ashburnham mentioned Sir John Oglander's house in the Isle of Wight as a place where the king might be concealed till the disposition of the governor of the island, Colonel Robert Hammond, could be ascertained. If Hammond were not to be trusted, the fugitive could secretly take ship for France. There was nothing impracticable in the plan, but its success depended upon keeping the royal whereabout from the knowledge of Hammond, until the governor had fully engaged himself to respect the king's liberty of action. This particular was ne-glected, and the secret divulged by Berkeley. The governor, having given assurances of loyalty, was taken to the house wherein Charles was awaiting the result of the interview. When informed of his approach, the king exclaimed, 'O Jack, thou hast undone me!' The foreboding was true. Refusing the desperate offer of Ashburnham to make all safe by killing Hammond, Charles again became virtually a prisoner.

His share in this transaction exposed Ashburnham to the suspicions of the royalists, and his explanation, printed in 1648, was of necessity so guarded as to be ineffective. A full narrative drawn up by him and shown to many of his contemporaries — Clarendon among the rest — remained unpublished until 1880, when his descendant, Lord Ashburnham, printed it with full elucidation, and accompanied it with a complete, caustic commentary on all the passages wherein Clarendon has made mention of the writer. The reputation of Ashburnham is cleared, and the treachery and malevolence of the noble historian are exposed with unsparing severity. Ashburnham was parted from his master by order of the parliament 1 Jan. 1648, was imprisoned in Windsor Castle (May), and when the second civil war broke out was exchanged for Sir William Masham. He was not allowed to attend the king during the treaty at Newport (August), and was included among the delinquents who were to expect no pardon (13 Oct.). His position after the king's death was unenviable. He had acquired an estate by his second marriage with the Dowager Lady Poulett (1649), and Charles II gave him permission to stay in England to preserve it. The loyal party suspected his fidelity, and (March 1650) in a memorial to the king asked whether they might trust him. He was harassed by the victors. He was sued for debts contracted for the late king. He was forced to compound for one half of his estate, an unparalleled severity. He was bound in heavy securities to appear, when required, before the council of state. His private journeys were licensed by a 'pass' from the same authority. For three years he was so persecuted by committees to discover who had lent the king money during the wars that 'I had scarce time to eat my bread.' 'Five years more,' he continues, 'were spent in close imprisonment at London, and three banishments to Guernsey Castle, the cause being for sending money to his majesty.' In a list of the Tower prisoners furnished by Colonel Barkstead (2 June 1654), 'John Ashburnham' appears as prisoner for high treason; but this is probably a slip for 'William,' who was at that time in custody for complicity in the plot of Gerard and Vowel. John's case was (27 Dec. 1655) referred to the major-generals of the counties where his estate lay. At the Restoration Ashburnham came back to his old place of groom of the bedchamber. Of his zeal therein Pepys makes a half-pathetic record (2 Sept. 1667), recalling Shakespeare's 'Adam' and 'the goodly service of the antique world.' The same authority elsewhere mentions him as 'a pleasant man, one who hath seen much of the world and more of the court.' Of the Hampton Court business, Pepys notes that, 'after solemnly charging each other with its failure, and being publicly at daggers drawn about it,' Ashburnham, Berkeley, and Legge 'are now the best friends in the world.' Besides his place Ashburnham received what acknowledgment of his loyalty the royal treasury, impoverished by many claimants, could affod. He was (September 1661) the head of a commission to inquire into the abuses in the post office. His house at Chiswick, with its contents, was purchased by the king for the Duke of Monmouth, of whom (January 1665) he was made one of the guardians. His loans to Charles I were paid by grants of crown leases, but his schemes for the acquisition of land do not appear to have run so smoothly as in the former reign. The dean and chapter of Exeter are menaced (November 1662) with the royal displeasure if they carry out their projected lease 'to John Ashburnham or to any other.' He and his brother William shared in an enterprise for reviving the manufacture of tapestry at Mortlake (March and April 1667), John Ashburnham died in 1671. His grandson was raised to the peerage in 1689. His portrait by Mytens has been engraved as a frontispiece to the volumes published by his descendant and quoted above.

[Narrative, edited by Lord Ashburnham, 1830; Calendars of State Papers, Domestic] 