John Ash

John Ash (1724-79) was born in Dorset, baptized in the Baptist church at Loughwood, and admitted to Bristol Academy in June 1748.  In 1751 he was ordained as pastor of the Baptist church at Pershore, where he would remain until his death in 1779.  Ash married Elizabeth Goddard, whose sister, Martha, lived in their home at Pershore and was a member of the Baptist church there prior to her marriage to William Steele of Broughton in 1768. Ash authored a number of circular letters for the Midland Association of Baptist Churches, and was a close friend of Caleb Evans of Bristol, co-editing with Evans the earliest hymnal for use primarily in Baptist churches, A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (Bristol, 1769). He also gained fame (and some unwished-for notoriety) as a lexicographer when he published his New and Complete Dictionary of the English Language in 1775.  He was a grammarian of some note, publishing The Easiest Introduction to Dr. Lowth’s English Grammar in 1760 and Grammatical Institutes in 1766. In 1777 his Sentiments on Education appeared, which contained an essay on “Female Accomplishments.” Though an admirer of the poetry of Anne and Mary Steele, Ash was nevertheless conservative in his approach to female education, focusing mostly on the social accomplishments they could gain through a proper education, but warning against acquiring too much learning. His daughter, Elizabeth (see entry above), however, received an education equivalent to a young male scholar, including instruction in the classical languages. See G. H. Taylor, “The Reverend John Ash, LL.D. 1724-1779, Baptist Quarterly 20 (1963-64), 4-22; reprinted in The British Particular Baptists, ed. Michael A. G. Haykin, 5 vols. (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 1998-2019), 5:1-29.