Life

He was born about 1390, and was from Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

. He was clerk of the signet, first to Henry VI

Henry VI of England

Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...

 from the beginning of his reign, and afterwards to Margaret of Anjou

Margaret of Anjou

Margaret of Anjou was the wife of King Henry VI of England. As such, she was Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471; and Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453...

, in whose service he evidently travelled abroad. Margaret named him steward of Warwick in 1446. In 1459 he was in Parliament, as member for the borough of Warwick

Warwick

Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...

.

Ashby was perhaps confined in the Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...

 by the Yorkist conquerors of Henry VI, who was deposed in 1461. Subsequently the poet would seem to have directed the education of the young Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, Henry VI's son, until his murder in 1471.

He appears to have owned an estate named 'Breakspeares' in Harefield, Middlesex. Ashby died on 20 February 1475, and was buried at Harefield. He left a son John, who died in 1496. A grandson George was clerk of the signet to Henry VII and Henry VIII, and died on 5 March 1515.

Works

His earliest extant poem, written in English and preserved in manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, describes him as a prisoner in the Fleet, and begins with a 'prohemium vnius Prisonarii.'

For Prince Edward's use Ashby prepared two English poetical treatises: one entitled De Activa Pollecia Principis, which opens with an address to 'Maisters Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate,' and the second called Dicta et Opiniones Diversorum Philosophorum, with translations into English verse. Both these compositions, Ashby states, were produced when he had attained the age of eighty. The manuscripts of these poems passed from the library of John Moore

John Moore (Bishop of Ely)

John Moore was an English cleric, scholar, and book collector. He was bishop of Norwich and bishop of Ely ....

, Bishop of Ely

Bishop of Ely

The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...

 about 1700, to the Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...

.

According to Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...

, Ashby was likewise the translator into English of several French manuals of devotion, ascribed by Robert Copland

Robert Copland

Robert Copland , English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde. The first book to which his name is affixed as a printer is The Boke of Justices of Peace , at the sign of the Rose Garland, in Fleet Street, London...

 to Andrew Chertsey

Andrew Chertsey

Andrew Chertsey was an English translator, now known for the devotional collection 'The craft to lyve well and to dye.'-Works:He undertook several translations into English of French devotional books for Wynkyn de Worde...

 in his prologue to Chertsey's Passyon of our Lord Jesu Christ (printed by Wynkyn de Worde

Wynkyn de Worde

Wynkyn de Worde was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognized as the first to popularize the products of the printing press in England....

in 1520): but no authority is given for this statement. None of Ashby's works are known to have been printed.