Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/181

Ashe House of Commons on 30 March 1642. 2. 'A Sermon before the House of Lords,' 26 Feb. 1644. 3. 'A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Countess of Manchester,' 12 Oct. 1658, &c. He also edited some treatises of John Ball, the puritan divine, J. Brinsley, Ralph Robinson, and others.

[Calamy's Nonconformist's Memorial, ed. 1802, i. 94-96; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, ed. 1822, iv. 344 ; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ ed. Sylvester, pt. ii. 430.]  ASHE or ASH, THOMAS (fl. 1600–1618), legal writer, was entered a student of Gray's Inn in 1574, was called to the bar 24 Jan. 1582-3, and became pensioner of his inn 17 Oct. 1597. He was the author of the following works: 1. 'Abridgment des touts les cases reportez alarge per Monsieur Plowden. . . compose & digest par T. A [she],' 1600? of which another edition appeared in 1607. 2. 'Ἐπιεικεια: et table generall a les annales del ley per quel facilement troveres touts les cases contenus in yceux; queux concerne le exposition des statutes per equitie,' 1609; with an appendix of cases reported by 'G. Dalison and G. Bendloes, in Queen Elizabeth's reign. 3. 'Le Primer Volume del Promptuaire; ou repertory de les annales et plusors auters livres del common ley Dengleterre,' 1614. 4. 'Fasciculus florum; or a Handfull of Flowers gathered out of the severall bookes of the Right Honorable Sir E. Coke,' 1618. 'A Generall Table' to Coke's reports, issued in 1652, has been attributed to Ashe, but if that be so, its late date shows it to have been published posthumously.

[Foster's Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, p. 18; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  ASHE, THOMAS (1770–1835), novelist and miscellaneous writer, traced his descent from the younger branch of a family whose ancestors accompanied William the Conqueror to England. A cadet of this younger branch served with William of Orange in Ireland, and obtained one of the forfeited Irish estates. Ashe was the third son of a half-pay officer, and was born at Glasnevin, near Dublin, 15 July 1770. He received a commission in the 83rd regiment of foot, which, however, was almost immediately afterwards disbanded, whereupon he was sent to a counting-house at Bordeaux. There he suffered a short imprisonment for wounding in a duel a gentleman whose sister he had seduced, but, the wound not proving fatal, the prosecution was not persisted in. Returning to Dublin, he was appointed secretary to the Diocesan and Endowed Schools Commission, but, getting into debt, resigned his office and retired to Switzerland. He then spent several years in foreign travel, living, according to his own account (Memoirs and Confessions, 3 vols. 1815), in a free and unconstrained fashion, and experiencing a somewhat chequered fortune. Besides recording in his 'Memoirs' his impressions of the countries he visited, he published separately 'Travels in America in 1806,' 1808; 'Memoirs of Mammoth and other Bones found in the vicinity of the Ohio,' 1806; and 'A Commercial and Geographical Sketch of Brazil and Madeira,' 1812. He was also the author of several novels, including the 'Spirit of the Book,' 1811, 4th edition 1812; the 'Liberal Critic, or Henry Percy,' 1812: and the 'Soldier of Fortune,' 1816. In his later years Ashe was in rather indigent circumstances. He died at Bath 17 Dec. 1835.

[Ashe's Memoirs, 1815.]  ASHFIELD, EDMUND (fl. 1680–1700), a portrait-painter, descended from a good family, was a pupil of Joseph Michael Wright. He worked both in oil and in crayons, but excelled most in the latter method. Vertue mentions a neatly painted head by him of Sir John Bennett, afterwards Lord Ossulston. He appears to have been also a copyist, for there are at Burghley House portraits of Frances, Countess of Warwick, and of Mary, Lady Herbert, afterwards Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, after Van Dyck, which are finished with extreme delicacy. His crayon drawings were highly finished, and characterised by the harmonious blending of the tints, of which he multiplied the number and variety, black and white only having hitherto chiefly been employed, the paper forming the middle tint. He practised from about 1680 to 1700, about which time he died. He was the instructor of E. Lutterell, whose works in crayons are superior to those of his master.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum, ii. 475; Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878; Waagen's Treasures of Art in Great Britain, iii. 408.]  ASHFORD, WILLIAM (1746?–1824), landscape painter, was born at Birmingham. In 1764 he went to Ireland and settled in Dublin. At first he held a situation under Mr. Ward in the ordnance department of that city. He abandoned it, however, for art. He contributed to the early exhibitions of the Incorporated Society of Artists in London, and in 1783 and 1790 to the Royal Academy. At this time he lived in London, and, in conjunction with Dominic Serres, R.A., made a