that the royal clemency was so manifest, that Ashton only suffered.[1]
In 1691 a small volume of Prayers was privately printed by a Nonjuror. With the volume there is a portrait of John Ashton: but whether this was the gentleman who was executed, or whether he was the author of the Prayers, I am unable to determine. It is not improbable that Grascome, or some other Nonjuring Clergyman was the author, and that the portrait of Ashton, who had recently been executed, and who was regarded as a martyr to Nonjuring principles, was inserted, both as a memorial of the sufferer in a manual of devotion, and as a recommendation to the volume. The book is a remarkable one, as exhibiting the views of the Nonjurors respecting King James, for whom there are several petitions, though he is not mentioned by name. The Prayers are generally couched in Scriptural language, and consist of confessions of sin, with supplications for divine mercy.[2]
