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Ashhurst public exhibition of his works. The Royal Hibernian Academy was incorporated in 1823, and Ashford was its first president. His work was at one time highly esteemed, but he died neglected. His early pictures, many of which were ably engraved by Thomas Milton, preserve the manner of Claude. In the committee-room of the Dublin Society there is a fine example of his style; another, 'Orlando under the Oak,' is in the Hibernian Gallery, and there are five in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. Anthony Pasquin, writing 1794, remarks on his work: 'He amused himself in his leisure hours with studying drawing and painting, which he succeeded in so far as to justify his becoming a professor. This gentleman is more happy in his trees and his foregrounds than his figures and skies, the former of which are too inaccurate, and the latter have too green a hue.' In later life he retired to Sandymont, near Dublin, where he died 17 April 1824, aged 78.

[Nagler's Künstler-Lexicon, ed. 1872; Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists of Eng. School; Cooper, New Biog. Dict., 1873; Pasquin, An Authentic History of the Professors of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, who have practised in Ireland, p. 40; Taylor, Origin and Progress of the Fine Arts in Great Britain and Ireland; Lavice, Revue des Musées d'Angleterre, p. 154.]  ASHHURST. [See .]

ASHLEY, ANTHONY (1551–1627), clerk of the privy council, was descended from an ancient family which had settled, from the time of Henry VI, at Wimborne St. Giles, in Dorsetshire. Of Ashley's early career we have no information; but we gather from his epitaph that he added to his studies, probably pursued at Oxford, the usual accomplishments of a gentleman of the period, namely, martial exercises and a mastery of several languages acquired in foreign travel. He certainly became clerk of the council before 1588. The earliest account of his services in that office known to us is to be found among the 'State Papers' (Domestic series), under date of 12 Nov. 1588, where we find him at Ilton, drawing up, by order of the council, 'A Schedule of the Names, etc. of the Spaniards on board the St. Peter the Great (one of the ships of the armada), driven into Hope Bay, near Salcombe.' Early in 1589 he received instructions from Lord Burghley to assist and 'be in company with Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake in their journey towards Spayne' (Lansd. MS. 104, 46). An account of this expedition is given by Camden. About this period probably he received the grant of the office of clerk of the castle and county court of York. We next hear of him at Oxford, where, with seventeen others, he received the degree of M.A. on the occasion of the queen's visit, 27 Sept. 1592 ( Prog. of Eliz.). Perhaps his most distinguished foreign service was that of secretary for war in the famous 'honourable voyage unto Cadiz.' On this occasion, in June 1596, he received the honour of knighthood, with others, at the hands of the two 'Lordes-generall' of the expedition. Lord C. Howard and the Earl of Essex (, i. 617). Like all other men in high positions he was not without enemies. On 3 Feb. 1611, more than a year after he had resigned his public offices, rewarded by two pensions, he was summoned before the Star-chamber to answer charges that could not be sustained by those who preferred them. His services were never wholly dispensed with or forgotten, as he was made a baronet by King James I, 3 July 1622 ( Prog. James I, iv. 771). By Nichols he is credited with having been the first to introdtice cabbages into England. Sir Anthony Ashley died in London, probably at his house in Holborn, 13 Jan. 1627, aged 76 years, and was buried at Wimborne St. Giles, where his fine monument is preserved. He was twice married, first to the only daughter of P. Okeover, Esq., of Staffordshire; second, to Dame Phillipa Sheldon, a kinswoman of G. Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who survived him. By the marriage of his daughter and heiress with Sir J. Cooper, Bart., the grandson of Sir Anthony Ashley became the first Earl of Shaftesbury. Ashley was undoubtedly the author of an important naval work, although the identity of Ashley, its writer, and Ashley, the clerk of the council, has not been previously pointed out. Four years before the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 there was published, in Holland, the first known collection of 'Sea Charts' sailors, afterwards known as a 'waggoner,' the title of which was: 'Spieghel der Zeevaardt vande navigatie der Westersche Zee,' by Lucas Janz Waghenaer, Leyden,1584, folio. It would appear that in the following year Lord Charles Howard, of Effingham, lord admiral of England, drew the attention of the privy council to the work, which met a great want of our early seamen under the Tudors. The work being 'esteemed by the chief personages of the grave counsell worthy to be translated and printed into a language familiar to all nations,' the task of translating it into English from the Dutch was committed into the hands of Anthony Ashley. The title of the work in its English dress runs thus: 'The Mariners Mirrour. . . of Navigation, First made and set fourth in divers exact Sea Charts by that famous Navigator Luke