Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar

Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar (9 July 1584 – 13 August 1639) was born in Staffordshire, England, about 1584, a son of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall and Anne Lucy of Charlecote Park.

At the coronation of King James I of England, Walter was honored with the Order of the Bath. In 1611, he was created a baronet. The event was particularly significant for the Aston family; as descendants of John Aston, minor nobility of the Plantagenet dynasty, they had little standing with the Tudor dynasty which had driven the last Plantagenet, King Richard III, from power when he was slain at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.[1]

In 1587, Sir Edward Aston, father of Walter, was the head of a commission appointed by Queen Elizabeth I to examine the letters and seal up the papers of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was then imprisoned at Chartley Castle. Later, Sir Edward Aston was appointed High Sheriff of Staffordshire, an office his ancestors had held since the time of King Edward III. A portrait in the Lichfield home of his descendant Theophilus Levett, painted in 1573, showed Sir Edward holding in one hand a medallion suspended from a gold chain, and bearing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.[2] The family portrait likely celebrated the return to Royal favor of the Aston family.[3]

In 1622, Sir Walter Aston was employed by the crown to negotiate a marriage between Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain. For this service, he was elevated to the peerage on November 28, 1627, as Lord Aston of Forfar.

Lord Aston married Gertrude, only daughter of Sir Thomas Sadler of Standon.[4] Lord Aston's sister Anne was married to Ambrose Elton, Esq., of The Hazle, Ledbury, Herefordshire, an Oxford graduate, JP and High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1618.[5] Thomas Levett of Lichfield, a great-grandson, erected a monument in honor of Ambrose Elton in 1753 in Ledbury Church, Ledbury.[6] Elton Levett of the same family, later of Nottingham, was named for his ancestor Elton.[7] Elton Levett's daughter Frances married Hon. George Byron of the Lords Byron of Newstead Abbey.[8]

Walter Aston died in 1639, and was succeeded by his son Walter Aston, 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar.

See also

References

  1. ^ Elton of Hazle, A Genealogical Account of the Mayo and Elton Families of the Counties of Wilts and Hereford, Charles Herbert Mayo, Privately Printed by Charles Whittingham and Co., London, 1882
  2. ^ The Scots Peerage: founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, Sir James Balfour Paul, Published by D. Douglas, Edinburgh, 1904
  3. ^ A Topographical and Historical Description of the Parish of Tixall, Sir Thomas Clifford, Bart., Arthur Clifford, M. Nouzou, Paris, 1817
  4. ^ The Visitations of Hertfordshire, Sir Richard St. George, Robert Cooke, John Philipot, Walter Charles, Harleian Society, London, 1886
  5. ^ Views of the Most Interesting Collegiate and Parochial Churches in Great Britain, John Preston Neale, John Le Keux, Thomas Moule, Published for the Proprietors by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London, 1824.
  6. ^ A Topographical and Historical Description of the Parish of Tixall, Sir Thomas Clifford, Bart., Arthur Clifford, M. Nouzou, Paris, 1817
  7. ^ A Genealogical Account of the Mayo and Elton Families of Wilts and Hereford, Charles Herbert Mayo, London, 1882
  8. ^ Byron, Lord Byron, English Peerage 1790, Barons, GENUKI