Joseph Ashby

Joseph Ashby (1859–1919) was an agricultural trade unionist born in Tysoe, Warwickshire, England. “His life was remarkable, encapsulating in many aspects the ideal of the self-improving working man, and embracing most of the institutions—the nonconformist chapel, trades unionism, and working-class Liberalism—that so clearly represented social and political betterment in the later years of the nineteenth century.” (Quotation from Alun Howkins, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). His biography was written by his daughter, Kathleen Ashby.

Joseph was born 13 June 1859, an illegitimate son of Elizabeth Ashby, an unmarried servant. Kathleen Ashby describes Joseph’s father as from “A family of very high rank, great landowners of in Warwickshire and neighbouring counties ... with some, though not great, achievement in science and letters". (Her notes deposited at the Warwickshire CRO suggest the family was the Comptons, Marquesses of Northampton, whom indeed Joseph had contacts with throughout his life.)

Joseph left school when nearly eleven and worked on a farm in Tysoe before being employed in quarrying in nearby Hornton. Later he worked as a builder at Compton Wynyates; it was while here that he first came into contact with William Compton, 5th Marquess of Northampton.

Elizabeth brought up Joseph as an Anglican; in his teens and against her wishes he joined the Methodists. Joseph attended one of the meetings of the farm workers union leader Joseph Arch. Although only a boy, he decided to join the union when he could. Also at this time, he came into contact with the third great influence of his life, the friendly society movement which gave him a belief in self-help.

By his late teens, he had found work with the Ordnance Survey, carrying instruments and taking simple measurements with a firm of surveyors in the Tysoe area; it was while working with the survey that he met Bolton King, the educationalist and sociologist, who was at that time a young Oxford graduate. King had found his vocation in social reform. Through his association with King and his contacts with local Liberalism Joseph began writing on the problems of rural life. He also collaborated with King on a survey of local villages. The methods employed were later used by the Ministry of Agriculture for its survey of farm labour conditions during the first World War. Writing for the local press remained a source of income for the rest of Joseph’s life. His areas of interest included allotments, small-holdings, and the reform of land ownership. Extracts from his articles from the Warwickshire Advertiser were later published as Joseph Ashby's Victorian Warwickshire.

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