the original members of the Royal Institution and the Athenæum Club. He died at Bridge Street, Westminster, 8 March 1858.
Ebers's Seven Years of the King's Theatre (1828); Annual Register for 1808; Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey (1875); Gent. Mag. for 1803.]
AYSCOUGH, ANNE. [See Askew, Anne.]
AYSCOUGH, FRANCIS, D.D. (1700–1766), divine, was born at St. Olave's, Southwark, in 1700, became a member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 28 March 1717, and graduated M.A. in 1723. After taking orders he was admitted probationer fellow of his college on 16 Jan. 1727, and after two years of probation became a candidate for an actual fellowship. Without giving any reason the president and majority of the fellows voted against his admission; whereupon Ayscough appealed to the visitor, the Bishop of Winchester. The college pleaded that they had a right to make elections to fellowships without being responsible to the visitor, but the plea was overruled by the bishop, and the college was compelled to receive Ayscough and pay the costs of the proceedings. In 1735 he took the degree of D.D., and in the following year published 'A Sermon preached before the House of Commons on Friday, 30 Jan. 1735-6, being the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I.' In 1740 he became clerk of the closet to Prince Frederick, and was presented by him to the rectory of Northchurch, Berkhampstead. The right of presentation was disputed by the chapter of Windsor, but the case was decided in the prince's favour. At Oxford he had been tutor to Lord Lyttelton, whose sister he married. By Lord Lyttelton's influence he was for a time preceptor to George III before his accession, and to his brother Edward, Duke of York. Finally he was appointed dean of Bristol. He was dead before October 1766, when a notice of him appeared in the 'London Magazine.' He left a son [see Ayscough, George Edward].
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iii. 181, viii. 433, ix. 531; Proceedings of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in the case of Mr. Ayscough Vindicated, 1730 ; Catalogue of Graduates of Oxford from 1659 to 1814; S.D.U.K. Biog. Dict.; Rawlinson MSS. v. 218.]
AYSCOUGH, GEORGE EDWARD (d. 1779), dramatist and traveller, was the son of Dr. Francis Ayscough, dean of Bristol, by a sister of the first Lord Lyttelton. For some time he held a commission in the Guards. In 1776 he produced at Drury Lane a version of the ‘Semiramis’ of Voltaire, Mr. Yates representing the chief character; an epilogue was provided by Sheridan. The tragedy obtained eleven representations, and the English author enjoyed three benefits on account of it. On the first performance Captain Ayscough's brother officers attended in great force and secured the success of ‘Semiramis.’ In the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ Ayscough is described as ‘a fool of fashion,’ ‘a parasite of Lord Lyttelton;’ and his tragedy is condemned as contemptible. He left England on account of his failing health, and afterwards published some account of his travels in Italy. He was the editor of the Miscellaneous Works of his uncle, Lord Lyttelton, published in 1774.
[Genest's History of the Stage, 1832.]
AYSCOUGH, SAMUEL (1745–1804), librarian and index-maker, was the grandson of William Ayscough, a stationer and printer of Nottingham, where he introduced the art of typography about 1710, and died on 2 March 1719, and the son of George Ayscough, who succeeded to his father's business, which he carried on upwards of forty years. George Ayscough was much esteemed in the neighbourhood, and was connected with some of the most respectable families in the county. His first wife died childless. He then married Edith, daughter of Benjamin Wigley of Wirksworth, by whom he had a son, Samuel, and a daughter, Anne. He inherited a good business, but, instead of devoting his energies to its development, launched into various wild speculations, among others being one to extract gold from the dross of coals. Having in this way gradually got rid of nearly all his money, about the year 1762 he took a large farm at Great Wigston in Leicestershire, where he was still more unfortunate, losing not only the remainder of his own property, but the fortunes of his two children.
Samuel Ayscough was born in 1745, and was educated at the free grammar school in Nottingham. The son assisted his father in the successive failures of business, speculations and farm. At last, when complete ruin confronted the family, Samuel hired himself to take care of a mill in the neighbourhood, and bravely laboured as a working miller to keep his father and sister. The new start in life proved unsuccessful, but an old schoolfellow and intimate friend of early life, Mr. Eamer (afterwards Sir John Eamer, lord mayor of London), hearing of his distress, about the year 1770 sent for him to come to town, clothed him, and procured for him a situation as overlooker of street-paviors. It
