Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Aston,_1st_Lord_Aston_of_Forfar

Wikipedia Biographical Summary

Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar (baptised 9 July 1584 – 13 August 1639) was an English courtier and diplomat.

Life

Aston was born in Staffordshire, England, about 1584, he was a son of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall and his second wife Anne Lucy of Charlecote Park.

On his fathers death (1 February 1597) Edward Coke the attorney-general, was appointed his guardian, by Lord Burghley, master of the court of wards.

In 1603, at the coronation of King James I of England, Aston was honoured with the Order of the Bath at which Michael Drayton the poet acted as his esquire (Aston had become his patron and between 1602 to 1607 Drayton decicated five of his works to Sir Walter).

In 1611, after paying a fee of £1095 Sir Walter was created Baronet of Tixall. In 1618 he was appointed steward of the honour of Tutbury by James I.

In 1622, Sir Walter was sent to Madrid as the resident ambassador to the Spanish court to negotiate a marriage between Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain and also provisions for joint naval operations to patrol and suppress piracy. The Prince of Wales (the future Charles I of England accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham, arrived at the Spanish court in 1623 unannounced, his overtures to the Infanta were rejected and so the marriage proposal fell through.

Despite the failure of his mission, for his service to Charles (in opposing the opinions of the special ambassador John, Earl of Bristol), Charles was grateful and once King helped Sir Walter both socially and financially. Charles pardon Sir Walter for recusancy — While in Spain he had converted Catholicism in 1623. This allowed him to serve in local government and in 1631 he was made a commissioner his home county of Warwickshire to enforce a fine upon gentry who failed to appear at Charles's coronation to receive knighthood.

Sir Walter claimed that his expenses in France had been ruinous and to have cost him £14,000. To make amends Charles arranged that, Sir Walter was elevated to the Scottish peerage on 28 November 28 1627, as Baron Forfar in county Angus, and gave him a bond of £1000 to buy land in Scotland. Charles also appointed him "keeper of the king's mulberry garden" at St James's with an annual income of £60. He also arranged an annual pension of £50 for Sir Walter and the same for his wife. Just over a year later in December 1628 "a warrant was issued to prepare a bill for a privy seal to pay out of the exchequer £14,000 to cancel his debt". This largess did not totally satisfy Lord Forfar who grumbled to Secretary Conway that it would have been better if the barony had been in recognition of "the ancient house of Tixall".

Lord Forfar returned as envoy to Spain in 1636, the and although Palatinate dispute over the restoration of the Palatinate to the new Elector Palatine (the Winter King having died) remained intractable, Lord Forfar did assistance to twenty-seven law suits involving English merchants in Spanish courts. He returned to England in the spring (March–May) 1638, but did not recover and died on 13 August 1639. He was buried in St Mary's Church, Stafford. He was succeeded by his son Walter Aston, 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar.

Family

Walter Aston's father died in 1597, leaving him with attorney-general Edward Coke as his legal guardian. Aston married Anne Barnes in 1600 without his guardian's permission; Coke subsequently had the marriage dissolved.

In 1607 Coke gave permission for Aston to marry Gertrude, only daughter of Sir Thomas Sadler of Standon. Lord Aston's sister Anne was married to Ambrose Elton, Esq., of The Hazle, Ledbury, Herefordshire, an Oxford graduate, JP and Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1618. Thomas Levett of Lichfield, a great-grandson, erected a monument in honor of Ambrose Elton in 1753 in Ledbury Church, Ledbury. Elton Levett of the same family, later of Nottingham, was named for his ancestor Elton. Elton Levett's daughter Frances married Hon. George Byron of the Lords Byron of Newstead Abbey.

The Astons were traditionally Roman Catholic, and Walter's son and grandson openly practiced that faith even at the height of the Penal Laws.

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 October 2013, 23:25 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Aston,_1st_Lord_As...> [accessed 18 November 2013]

Other References

• The Scots peerage, Vol. I, page 406-409