William Aston (Irish judge)

Sir William Aston (1613-1671) was an English born barrister and soldier who fought with distinction in Ireland  for  King Charles I during the English Civil War. Although he made his peace with the Cromwellian regime after the King's defeat,  he was generally  believed  to have remained  a convinced Royalist, and was rewarded for his loyalty to the Crown  with a seat on the  Irish High Court Bench after the Restoration. His eldest son  was hanged for murder in 1686;  his last direct male descendant, also  named William Aston, was de jure 6th Lord Aston of Forfar.

Background
He was born at Leigh in Staffordshire, son of John Aston and Margery Walton, and great-grandson of  Sir Walter Aston, who was the  grandfather of the 1st Lord Aston of Forfar. He entered Gray's Inn in 1639, and then moved to Ireland. In 1646 he was serving as a major in the Royalist   army, and was then described as an "honest royalist"; yet a few years later he was serving in the   Cromwellian  army, and later sat in the Irish  Protectorate Parliaments of 1656 and 1659. Elrington Ball argues that despite his apparent change of side, his loyalty to the Crown was never really in doubt: certainly in 1660 he was known  to be actively supporting the Restoration of Charles II. The new regime praised him for his "early and faithful adherence to the King":  he was knighted and made a justice of the  Court of King's Bench (Ireland).

Judge
As a judge he presided over one of the last Irish witch trials. He also engaged in a dispute over precedence with his colleague Sir Jerome Alexander, who is said to have challenged him to a duel, and then accused him of cowardice for refusing to accept the challenge. Ironically they were close neighbours in Ship Street, Dublin; Aston obtained permission to widen the street in front of his house. He also quarreled with the well-known Roman Catholic barrister Patrick D'Arcy, who had carried Alexander's challenge: according to one report,  Aston tried unsuccessfully  to have D'Arcy  prosecuted. D'Arcy in turn threatened to horsewhip Aston, who is said to have gone in fear of him for some time, although the story that he went to England and stayed there until after D'Arcy's death is not borne out by the evidence.

As well as his town house, he also had a country estate at Richardstown in County Louth. His exact date of death is disputed but it was probably in January 1671. He was Treasurer of the King's Inns from 1665 to 1669.

Family
He married firstly Sarah Wingfield of Shrewsbury,  by whom  had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne; she died before 1642. He married secondly in 1642 Elizabeth Gill (née Fellgate), the  daughter and widow of merchants  of London,  by whom he  had two sons, William junior  and John; she died in 1661.

His son William- hanged for murder (1686)
Aston's eldest son by Elizabeth, William Aston junior (1643-1686), a barrister  of Lincoln's Inn,   killed a Mr Keating in a street brawl in Dublin in 1686 and was hanged for his  murder. The crime was considered so heinous, and the defence so feeble, that the Crown evidently decided to make an example of  young  Aston: considerable trouble was taken to empanel a "good jury" i.e. one which could be trusted to bring in a guilty verdict. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,  Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of  Clarendon,  described Aston with contempt, and  wrote  to his brother Lord Rochester  that despite "great intercession" having been made  on the young man's behalf, he could see no grounds for  James II to exercise his prerogative of mercy. The only concession was that rather than being hanged, drawn,  and quartered  and  exposed in public, Aston's body would be released to his family for private burial.

Third marriage
Sir William married thirdly, after 1661,   Ursula Stockton, daughter of his  judicial colleague, Thomas Stockton, and had one surviving  son, Thomas. Thomas's son married the daughter and heiress of Henry Tichborne, 1st Baron Ferrard: their grandson William Aston (died 1769) was de jure 6th Baron Aston, although he never made out a claim to the title, and may not have been aware of his right to it.

After Sir William's death Ursula remarried Sir Charles Fielding, and died in 1720. Lord Clarendon, describing her stepson's conviction for murder, also gossiped that Ursula had a jointure of £300 a year.