Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/198

Ashwood , 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.]  ASHWOOD, JOHN (1657–1706), non-conformist 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 high-church 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 ; Reynolds's Account of Life.]  ASHWORTH, CALEB, D.D. (1722–1775), dissenting tutor, was born at Clough-Fold, 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, (1736–1765)], biblical criticism, and ecclesiastical history; its staple was dogmatics and philosophy, including psychology (then called pneumatology), ethics, and physics. Ashworth published for his academy a Hebrew Grammar, and a treatise on ‘Plane 