in Ashanti and Jaman, by R. A. Freeman (London, 1898); Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii. “West Africa,” by C. P. Lucas (Oxford, 1900); and the Annual Reports, Ashanti, issued from 1906 onward by the Colonial Office, London. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, by Col. A. B. Ellis (London, 1887), deals with ethnology. Of early works on the country the most valuable are A Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, by T. E. Bowdich (London, 1819); and Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), by J. Dupuis. For history generally, see A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa, by Col. A. B. Ellis (London, 1893); and History of the Gold Coast and Asante . . . from about 1500 to 1860, by C. C. Reindorf, a native pastor of the Basel mission (Basel, 1895).
For the British military campaigns, in addition to the official blue-books, consult: Narrative of the Ashantee War, 2 vols., by (Sir) Henry Brackenbury (London, 1874); The Story of a Soldier’s Life by Viscount Wolseley, vol. ii. chs. xliii.-l. (London, 1903); Coomassie, by (Sir) H. M. Stanley, being the story of the 1873–74 expedition (new ed., London, 1896); Life of Sir John Hawley Glover, by Lady Glover, chs. iii.-x. (London, 1897); The Downfall of Prempeh, by (General) R. S. S. Baden-Powell, an account of the 1895–96 expedition (London, 1896); From Kabul to Kumassi (chs. xv. to end), by Sir James Willcocks, (London, 1904); The Ashanti Campaign of 1900, by Capt. C. H. Armitage and Lieut.-Col. A. F. Montanaro (London, 1901); The Relief of Kumasi, by Capt. H. C. J. Biss (London, 1901). The two books following are by besieged residents in Kumasi: The Siege of Kumasi, by Lady Hodgson (London, 1901); Dark and Stormy Days at Kumasi, 1900, from the diary of the Rev. Fritz Ramseyer (London, 1901). Many of the works quoted under Gold Coast deal also with Ashanti. (F. R. C.)
ASHʽARĪ [Abū-l Hasan ʽAli ibn Ismaʽīl ul-Ashʽarī], (873–935), Arabian theologian, was born of pure Arab stock at Başra, but spent the greater part of his life at Bagdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Muʽtazalite teacher al-Jubbāʽī, and himself remained a Muʽtazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he returned to the faith of his fathers and became its most distinguished champion, using the philosophical methods he had learned in the school of heresy. His theology, which occupied a mediate position between the extreme views on most points, became dominant among the Shafiʽites. He is said to have written over a hundred works, of which only four or five are known to be extant.
See W. Spitta, Zur Geschichte Abu ʽl-Hasan al Ašʽari’s (Leipzig, 1876); A. F. Mehren, Exposé de la reforme de l’Islamisme commencée par Abou. ʽl-Hasan Ali el-Ashʽari (Leiden, 1878); and D. B. Macdonald’s Muslim Theology (London, 1903), especially the creed of Ashʽari in Appendix iii. (G. W. T.)
ASHBOURNE, a market-town in the western parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 13 m. W.N.W. of Derby, on the London & North-Western and the North Staffordshire railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4039. It is pleasantly situated on rising ground between two small valleys opening into that of the Dove, and the most beautiful scenery of Dovedale is not far distant. The church of St Oswald is cruciform, Early English and later; a fine building with a central tower and lofty octagonal spire. Its monuments and brasses are of much interest. The town has a large agricultural trade and a manufacture of corsets. The streams in the neighbourhood are in favour with trout fishermen. Ashbourne Hall, an ancient mansion, has associations with “Prince Charlie,” who occupied it both before and after his advance on Derby in 1745. There are also many connexions with Dr Johnson, a frequent visitor here to his friend Dr Taylor, who occupied a house opposite the grammar school.
ASHBURNHAM, JOHN (c. 1603–1671), English Royalist, was the son of Sir John Ashburnham of Ashburnham in Sussex. He early entered the king’s service. In 1627 he was sent to Paris by his relative the duke of Buckingham to make overtures for peace, and in 1628 he prepared to join the expedition to Rochelle interrupted by the duke’s assassination. The same year he was made groom of the bedchamber and elected member of parliament for Hastings, which borough he also represented in the Long Parliament of 1640. In this capacity he rendered services by reporting proceedings to the king. He made a considerable fortune and recovered the Ashburnham estates alienated by his father. He became one of the king’s chief advisers and had his full confidence. He attended Charles at York on the outbreak of the war with Scotland. In the Civil War he was made treasurer of the royal army, in which capacity he aroused Hyde’s jealousy and remonstrances by infringing on his province as chancellor of the exchequer. In 1644 he was a commissioner at Uxbridge. He accompanied Charles in his flight from Oxford in April 1646 to the Scots, and subsequently escaped abroad, joining the queen at Paris, residing afterwards at Rouen and being sent to the Hague to obtain aid from the prince of Orange. After the seizure of Charles by the army, Ashburnham joined him at Hampton Court in 1647, where he had several conferences with Cromwell and other army officers. When Charles escaped from Hampton Court on the 11th of November, he followed Ashburnham’s advice in opposition to that of Sir John Berkeley, who urged the king to go abroad, and took refuge in the Isle of Wight, being placed by Ashburnham in the hands of Robert Hammond, the governor. “Oh, Jack,” the king exclaimed when he understood the situation, “thou hast undone me!” when Ashburnham, “falling into a great passion of weeping, offered to go and kill Hammond.” By this fatal step Ashburnham incurred the unmerited charge of treachery and disloyalty. Clarendon, however, who censures his conduct, absolves him from any crime except that of folly and excessive self-confidence, and he was acquitted both by Charles I. and Charles II. He was separated with Berkeley from Charles on the 1st of January 1648, waited on the mainland in expectation of Charles’s escape, and was afterwards taken and imprisoned at Windsor, and exchanged during the second Civil War for Sir W. Masham and other prisoners. He was one of the delinquents specially exempted from pardon in the treaty of Newport. In November he was allowed to compound for his estates, and declared himself willing to take the covenant. After the king’s death he remained in England, an object of suspicion to all parties, corresponded with Charles II., and underwent several terms of imprisonment in the Tower and in Guernsey. At the Restoration he was reinstated in his former place of groom of the bedchamber and was compensated for his losses. He represented Sussex in parliament from 1661 till the 22nd of November 1667, when he was expelled the House for taking a bribe of £500 from French merchants for landing their wines. He died on the 15th of June 1671.
He had eight children, the eldest of whom, William, left a son John (1656–1710), who in 1689 was created Baron Ashburnham. John’s second son, John (1687–1737), who became 3rd Baron Ashburnham on his brother’s death in 1710, was created Viscount St Asaph and earl of Ashburnham in 1730. The 5th earl (b. 1840) was his direct descendant. Bertram (1797–1878), the 4th earl, was the collector of the famous Ashburnham library, which was dispersed in 1883 and 1884.
A Letter from Mr Ashburnham to a Friend, defending John Ashburnham’s conduct with regard to the king, was published in 1648. His longer Narrative was published in 1830 by George, 3rd earl of Ashburnham (the latter’s championship of his ancestor, however, being entirely uncritical and unconvincing); A Letter to W. Lenthall (1647) repudiates the charge brought against the king of violating his parole (Thomason Tracts, Brit. Museum, E 418 [4]).
ASHBURTON, ALEXANDER BARING, 1st Baron[1] (1774–1848), English politician and financier, 2nd son of Sir Francis Baring (the founder of the house of Baring Brothers & Co.) and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring, was born on the 27th of October 1774, and was brought up in his father’s business. He was sent by the latter to the United States; married Anne, daughter of William Bingham, of Philadelphia, and formed wide connexions with American houses. In 1810, by his father’s death, he became head of the firm. He sat in parliament for Taunton (1806–1826), Callington (1826–1831), Thetford (1831–1832), North Essex (1832–1835). He regarded politics from the point of view of the business man, opposed the orders in council, and the restrictions on trade with the United States in 1812, and in 1826 the act for the suppression of small bank-notes. He was a strong antagonist of Reform. He accepted the post of chancellor of the exchequer in the duke of Wellington’s projected ministry of 1832; but afterwards, alarmed at the scene in parliament, declared “he would face a thousand devils rather than such a House of Commons,” and advised the recall
- ↑ i.e. in the existing line; see below for the earlier creation.
