Wagenar of Enchuisen, and now fitted with necessarie additions for the use of Englishmen by Anthony Ashley. Heerin also may be understood the exploits lately atchived by the right Honorable L. Admiral of England with her Maties Navie, and some former services done by that worthy knight Sr Fra. Drake,' fol. London, 1588. The exploits of the lord admiral referred to his pursuit of the armada up the Channel into the North Sea; the services of Sir Francis Drake relate to 'The Voyage to Cadiz in 1587,' mentioned by Hakluyt, 1599, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 121. The book was dedicated by Anthony Ashley to Sir Christopher Hatton, the then newly appointed lord chancellor, his friend and patron, whose arms and crest adorn the work. In the dedication the author apologises for the delay in its publication 'by reason of my daylie attendance on your L. and the rest of my Lordes of her Maisties most Honourable privie counsell;' which words serve to show beyond all dispute that the clerk of the council and the author of the 'Mariners Mirrour' are one and the same person. One letter from Ashley to Cecil is printed by Strype in his 'Memorials.' Among the Cecil MSS. at Hatfield are three series of thirty-five letters from Ashley to the Earl of Essex, Cecil, and others, ranging from 26 Sept. 1591 to 12 Dec. 1600, temp. Elizabeth, and from 13 April 1603 to 1 July 1615, temp. James I.
[Biog. Dict. Soc. D. U. K. 1842; Camden's Annales, ii. 10; Hakluyt's Voyages. 1699, i. 617; Hutchins's Hist. of Dorset, 3rd ed. vol. iii.; Nichols's Prog. Eliz. iii. 160; ibid. James I, iv. 771; Strype's Annals, iv. 288; Wood's Fasti Oxon. 1813, i. 161; Lansd. MS. 104, 46; Hist. MSS. Comm. third, fifth, and sixth Reports, appendices; Notes and Queries (3rd series), xii. (4th series), i.]
ASHLEY, CHARLES JANE (1773–1843), third son of John Ashley [see Ashley, John, 1734?–1805], was well known for many years as a performer on the violoncello, and also for some time carried on the Covent Garden oratorios with his brother. On 2 May 1811 he was elected secretary of the Royal Society of Musicians, of which he had been a member since 4 May 1794. In the latter part of his life he was for some seasons manager of the Tivoli Gardens at Margate, where he died on 29 Aug. 1843.
[Gent. Mag. for 1843; Records of Roy. Soc. of Musicians.]
ASHLEY, GENERAL CHARLES (1770?–1818), eldest son of John Ashley [see Ashley, John, 1734?-1805], obtained some celebrity as a violinist. He was a pupil of Giardini and Barthelemon, and with his three brothers took part in the Handel commemoration in 1784, on which occasion the young musicians distinguished themselves by nailing the coat of an Italian violinist to his seat and filling his violin with halfpence, proceedings of which he complained so loudly that George III sent to the orchestra to find out what occasioned the disturbance. G. C. Ashley led his father's orchestra at the Covent Garden oratorios, of which, after John Ashley's death, he became Joint manager with his brother Charles Jane. He became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians 3 April 1791 (Records of Roy. Soc. of Musicians). On 2 March 1804 he married a Miss Chandler, and, having no family and an independent fortune, shortly afterwards retired from his profession. He died at King's Row, Pimlico, on 21 Aug. 1818.
[Gent. Mag. for 1818; Burney's Commemoration of Handel, 1786.]
ASHLEY, JOHN (1734?–1805), was the father of a remarkable family of musicians who flourished towards the end of the eighteenth century. He became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians 7 April 1765. At the Handel commemoration in 1784 he was assistant conductor to Joah Bates. On the same occasion the double bassoon was played by a 'Mr. Ashley of the Guards,' who is sometimes supposed to have been the same individual, but was more probably another member of the family, possibly his brother Jane, who was born in 1740 and died at Westminster on 5 April 1809. John Ashley in 1795 undertook the management of the oratorio concerts at Covent Garden. He died in Abingdon Street, Westminster, on 2 March 1805, where also his wife died on 22 Dec. 1809, aged 75. Richard Ashley (1775–1836), one of John Ashley's sons, was a performer on the violin, but he does not seem to have made any mark as a musician. He became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians 17 April 1796, and died in October 1836.
[Gent. Mag. for 1805; Burney's Commemoration of Handel, 1786; Gardiner's Music and Friends, 1838; Records of Roy. Soc. of Musicians.]
ASHLEY, JOHN JAMES (1772–1815), second son of John Ashley [see Ashley, John, 1734?–1805], a pupil of Schroeter, was for several years organist at Covent Garden Theatre. He was one of the most successful singing masters of his day, some of his most celebrated pupils being Mrs.
