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The Reverend Mr. Ashton Will Not be Down for Breakfast

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In August 1764, the Reverend Mr. Ashton, Rector of Kemble, had been to Devizes on the noble errand of raising funds for the distressed widows of clergymen — a charitable effort he was about to further his support for in an unexpected way.

On his return journey, he stopped overnight at the White Lion Inn on Gloucester Street in Malmesbury. The following morning he awoke and wandered the streets of a busy town on market day. Usually known as “a good-natured, facetious companion”, today he had all the cheer of a death at a birthday party, and the Gloucester Journal noted, “Many people who saw him took notice that he looked melancholy, and thought he was ill” — but let’s be honest, having spent time in Devizes is about enough to do that to anyone.

“He’s probably just a heavy sleeper…”
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Ashton sat down to dinner before taking another stroll and returning to the inn, asking for a room. At bedtime, the staff of the inn knocked at his door to ask one of the most pressing questions in hospitality of those awkward years before Joseph Sparkes Hall invented the Chelsea boot: “Does Sir need any help getting those gurt big clodhoppers off?” Receiving no reply, they left him to count sheep — an infinite number of them, as it would happen.

“The room service is deathly slow, though…”
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When the staff knocked at the door the next morning, Sir was still not answering and the Georgian equivalent of a locksmith, a carpenter, was called to help with the door. Ashton was discovered hanging by his neck from the bedside bell — his modesty preserved — still “with his boots and spurs on”.

The Gloucester Journal noted, “A gentleman, with whom he spent the evening the Sunday before, observed that he was less cheerful than usual, and that he, more than once, said, where a man dies there he should be buried”. If you were staff at the White Lion that day, you could probably view that as either deeply philosophical, or some back-breaking digging in the herb garden.

Articles
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Gloucester Journal ·
On Friday afternoon the 3d inst. the Rev. Mr. Ashton, Rector of Kemble, Wilts, came to the White Lion in Malmesbury, on his return from Devizes, where he had been to meet the Rev. the Clergy of the Deanery of Malmesbury, in order to carry into execution a subscription for the benefit of the distressed widows of clergymen within that county, he being one of the stewards for the present year. The next morning he got up, walked about the town, and said, that he was not well. Many people who saw him took notice that he looked melancholy, and thought he was ill. A gentleman, with whom he spent the evening the Sunday before, observed that he was less cheerful than usual, and that he, more than once, said, where a man dies there he should be buried. After dinner he walked again, and between four and five o’clock desired to be shewn into a room where he might be quiet, it being their market day: he was conducted into the room in which he had lain the preceding night; and late in the evening, the people of the house called and knocked at the door, to know whether he would have his boots off and go to bed, but having no reply they went away; and the next morning sent for a carpenter, who burst open the door, and found him dead.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette ·
On Friday Night or Saturday Morning last, a Clergyman of the Neighbourhood of Malmesbury hanged himself at an Inn in that Place. He came to the Inn about Six o’Clock on Friday Evening, and desired the Servant to shew him his Room, as he wanted to lie down ’till Supper Time: When Supper was ready, the People of the House knocked several Times at the Chamber Door, but to no Purpose: Thinking him to be gone to Bed, they judged not proper to disturb him, but the next Morning early, going into his Room, they found him dead, with his Boots and Spurs on, hanging by the Cord of the Bell, by the Bedside, his Feet on the Ground, and his Body something bent, by which it is suppos’d he had given himself a sudden Jerk, and was immediately strangled. The People of the Inn represent him to be a good-natured, facetious Companion, but that Day he seemed to be very melancholy.