Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pashley, Robert
PASHLEY, ROBERT (1805–1859), barrister and traveller, the son of Robert Pashley of Hull, was born at York on 4 Sept. 1805, and was educated at Mansfield under Williams. He was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 3 May 1825, took a double first class in 1829, being twenty-fifth wrangler and eleventh in the first class of the classical tripos, and was elected a fellow of Trinity in the following year. In 1832 he proceeded M.A., and, as travelling fellow of Trinity, undertook in 1833 a tour in Greece, Asia Minor, and Crete, towards which, by the influence of Sir Francis Beaufort, he received from the admiralty the privilege of a free passage in the vessels employed in the Mediterranean survey; but as these were necessarily employed in coasting he was obliged to return from Crete to Italy in a Hydriote vessel, which took thirty days to perform the voyage. On his way home he spent some time at Venice, examining the archives with a view to the preparation of an appendix to his travels. These, by the aid of the Cambridge University press, appeared in 1837, in two volumes, under the title ‘Travels in Crete.’ They were dedicated to the Marquis of Lansdowne, and took a high rank among books of classical travel. Few works contain a more ample store of illustration, alike from the writers of Greece and Rome, and from modern authorities on ancient topography and mythology; while at the same time the author's lively sympathy with the life around him keeps his narrative fresh and interesting. A great part of the impression, together with Pashley's library and collections of antiquities, was destroyed in the great fire at the Temple in 1838, supposed to have originated in the chambers of Mr. Justice Maule. Pashley, who had been called to the bar in 1837, continued the pursuit of his profession, and obtained a large practice on the northern circuit. In 1851 he became Q.C., and was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple. In 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for parliament both at York and King's Lynn, and in the same year published a valuable pamphlet on ‘Pauperism.’ Another pamphlet on this subject, ‘Observations on the Government Bill for Abolishing the Removal of the Poor,’ saw two editions in 1854. In 1856 he succeeded Mr. Serjeant Adams as assistant-judge of the Middlesex sessions, which office he discharged successfully until his death, after a short illness, on 29 May 1859.
[Gent. Mag. 1859, pt. ii. p. 191; information from W. Aldis Wright, esq.]