Author: Astley, Francis Dukinfield
Biography:
ASTLEY, Francis Dukinfield (1781-1825: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the elder son of the portrait painter John Astley (1720-87) and his third wife, Mary Wagstaffe. John Astley’s second wife was Penelope, the widow of Sir William Dukinfield-Daniell; he painted her portrait in 1759 and married her soon after. On her death in 1762 he inherited a fortune which he freely squandered in London before, in 1771, inheriting Dukinfield Hall near Stockport in Cheshire when Lady Penelope’s only child also died. He married Mary Wagstaffe on 11 Nov. 1777 and Francis Dukinfield Astley was born at Dukinfield on 17 July 1781. He studied at Rugby School and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 Feb. 1798 but left without taking a degree. In 1802, when he was twenty-one, he inherited the Dukinfield estate. On 10 May 1803 he had a son, William Astley, with Jane (or Jenny) Kerfoot of Dukinfield. In Oct. of the same year he was initiated into the Minerva Lodge of Freemasons and in 1806 he was appointed High Sheriff of Cheshire. He married Susan Fysshe Palmer in Etwall, Derbyshire, on 10 June 1812; they had two sons but only one, Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley, survived infancy. Astley was committed to being a responsible landowner and improving the estate; his Hints to Planters (1807) reflects his interest in reforestation. He died suddenly on 23 July 1825 and was buried in the chapel at Dukinfield near his infant son. (ODNB for John Astley 1 July 2022; ancestry.co.uk 1 July 2022; Alumni Oxonienses; James Butterworth, Some Memoirs [1828]) SR
Other Names:
- F. D. Astley