John de Ashton (fl. 1370)

Sir John de Ashton, or Assheton (c. 1354 – c. 1398), of Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, was an English politician and military commander.

He was the son of Sir John Ashton (d. c. 1360), and followed his father into military service at a young age. In 1369 he fought in France under John of Gaunt, and in Ireland in 1373. He was knighted by 1377, when he was retained by John of Gaunt.

Froissart's Chronicles records a Sir John Assueton who fought at the siege of Noyons in 1370, who was identified by the 19th-century Dictionary of National Biography with the subject of this article, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography views this as "suspect"; he would have been sixteen, and not yet knighted.

Ashton was elected as a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Lancashire in October 1382, with Gaunt's support. He joined Despenser's Crusade in Flanders in 1383, and campaigned in Scotland in 1385; however, he did not accompany Gaunt on his Spanish campaign in 1386.

Ashton returned to Parliament in September 1388, and again in January 1390, though not much is know about his activity at them. His eldest son, John de Ashton, was MP for Lancashire in 1411, 1413 and 1416, as well as seneschal of Bayeux in 1417-18.

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