Family and Education

bap. 24 Jan. 1687, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir Richard Astley, 1st Bt., by his 2nd w. Henrietta (d. 1711), da. and coh. of William Borlase, M.P., of Great Marlow, Bucks. m. 27 May 1711, Mary, da. and h. of Francis Prynce of Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, 1s. (d.v.p. and s.p. 1756), 6da. suc. fa. 24 Feb. 1688.

Offices Held

Biography

Sir John Astley, a life-long Tory and Jacobite, whose name was sent to the Pretender in 1721 as a probable supporter in the event of a rising, gave all his votes against the Government. He owed his interest at Shrewsbury to his wife’s inheritance of the suburb of Abbey Foregate in the borough. Defeated in a three-cornered contest for the county in 1713, he stood for Shrewsbury in 1727, where he was opposed by a fellow Tory, Corbet Kynaston, against whom he had been awarded £24,000 damages in a lawsuit.2 Reconciled in 1733,3 they were returned next year for the county, which Astley continued to represent unopposed until his death. His son was defeated on the Tory interest at Shrewsbury in 1747, and at the by-election for the borough in 1749 he supported Thomas Hill. In March 1752 he took his son-in-law, Anthony Langley Swymmer, to Paris to meet the Young Pretender about a proposal to restore the Stuarts.4

He died 29 Dec. 1771.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: J. B. Lawson

Notes

• 1. Burke and Gent. Mag.; GEC Baronetage has 29 Jan. 1772.
• 2. Thos. Carte to Nathaniel Mist, 15 Jan. 1731, Stuart mss 142/112.
• 3. Thos. Carte to Kynaston, 11 Feb., 27 Apr. 1731, 17 Dec. 1737, Add. 21500, ff. 25, 31, 66.
• 4. A. Lang, Pickle the Spy, 190, 213.