Author: Assheton, William
Biography:
ASSHETON, William (1788-1858: ancestry.co.uk)
The author of a curious piece of anti-Catholic propaganda, Emancipation!, is said to be William Assheton. It is an unusual surname derived from the family seat in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancaster. He was the son and heir of William Assheton and his wife Lettice Brooke of Norton Priory, Chester. He was born on 16 Mar. 1788 in Micklegate, York, and baptised there at Holy Trinity church on 17 Mar. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, on 5 Apr. 1805 but left without taking a degree. No information about what he did next has been found but on 9 Aug. 1816 he married Frances Annabella Cockayne of Rushton Hall, Northampton, at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, in London. In 1830 when their first surviving son was born they were living in Gower Street, London. He inherited Downham Hall, near Clitheroe in Lancashire, when his father died in 1833. Frances died in 1835 shortly after the birth of their second son. The 1851 Census shows William Assheton living at Downham Hall and he died there on 8 Aug. 1858. (ancestry.co.uk 29 June 2022; Burke; Alumni Oxonienses; Morning Herald 11 Aug. 1858) SR