ASHLEY, a township in the parish of BOWDON,
hundred of BUCKLOW, county palatine of CHESTER,
5 miles (N. N. E.) from Nether Knutsford, containing
392 inhabitants. Ashley Hall, the ancient manorial
mansion, is remarkable for containing eleven original
portraits of the same number of gentlemen of this
county, ancestors of the Grosvenors, Cholmondeleys,
and other families, who formed a club during the progress
of the Pretender through the north, in 1715,
when the expediency of joining his standard was debated:
the casting vote against the measure having
been given by Thomas Asheton, the owner of the manor
and mansion: this decision is considered, from the in-
fluence of the parties in Lancashire and Cheshire, to
have mainly contributed to the defeat of the enterprise,
ASHLEY, a parish in the hundred of CORBY, county
of NORTHAMPTON, 5 miles (W. by S.) from Rockingham,
containing 367 inhabitants. The living is a rectory,
in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese
of Peterborough, rated in the king's books at £ 17,
and in the patronage of the Rev. Richard Farrer. The
church is dedicated to St. Mary.