Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/311

Ayscue

��299

��Ay ton

��Aftei'wards, liaving received large rein- forcements, which raised his fleet to some fifty sail all told, lie went round to Plymouth, and off that port, on 16 Aug., met the Dutch under De lluyter, whose foi'ce, on a compa- rison of the many differing and opposing esti- mates, may be considered to have been equal to tliat with Ayscue. After a close and con- fused action, which lasted from two or three o'clock in the afternoon till nightfall, the fleets separated without any decided advantage on either side. During the next day they lay in sight of each other, neither of them wishing to begin or to appear to shun a renewal of the fight ; but towards evening the Dutch pursued tlieir way to the westward, and tlie English, too sliattered to follow them, went into Ply- mouth. Both claimed and have continvied to claim the victory, which, so far as the immediate contest was concerned, belonged to neither, though undoubtedly tlie advan- tage rested with De Ruyter, since he had protected his convoy and jiursued his voyage. ^Vnd this wovdd seem to have been the opinion of the parliament : for Avith implied, if not expressed censure, they superseded Ayscue in his command, assigning him, however, a pen- sion of 300/. a year. Either by inheritance, ))y commerce, or by prize-money. Sir George would seem by this time to have amassed a I'omfortable fortune. Whitelocke relates how, on 13 Aug. I606, tlie ambassador of Sweden was elaborately entertained at Sir George Ayscue's house in Surrey (Ham-Haw in the parish of Chertsey). ' The house,' he Avrites, ' stands environed with ponds, moats, and water, like a ship at sea : a fancy the fitter for the master's humour, who is himself so great a seaman. There, he said, he had cast unclior and intended to spend the rest of his life in a private retirement.' Within two years, hoAvever, he was persuaded by Crom- well to go to SAveden and take the com- mand of the SAvedish fleet ; and though no iip])ortunity for active service occurred, he si ayed in SAveden, presumably as adviser on luiA'al affairs, until the Restoration, when he rt'tumed to England, and Avas appointed one of the commissioners of the naA'y. On the outbreak of the second Dutch Avar, in 1664, lie was appointed rear-admiral of the blue, and serA'ed in that rank in the action of •") June I660, Avith his flag in the Henry. On the Duke of York's quitting the fleet he Avas made vice-admiral of the red, under Lord SandAvich. The folloAA'ing spring he Avas admiral of the blue, in the Royal Prince ; l)ut on 30 May, Avhen Prince Rupert had liiken part of the fleet aAA'ay to the west- Avard, and Avith him Sir Tliomas Allin, the a<lmiral of the white, Ayscue AA-as appointed

��admiral of the white in the division of the fleet that remained with Monck : and it wa& as admiral of the Avhite that he took part in the four days' engagement off the Nortli Foreland {State Papers, Domestic, Charles II, vol. clvii. No. 57, Clarke to Williamson, 30 May, 1666). On the third day of this gi-eat battle, Avhilst endeavouring to join Prince Rupert's division, Avliich had just come on the scene, the Royal Prince struck on the Galloper — a dangerous shoal on the Essex coast — Avas surrounded by the Dutcli and captured. They Avere unable, hoAvever, to get the ship oft', and eventually set her on fire ; but they carried Sir George Ayscue a prisoner to Holland, and are said, by all our contemporary writers, to have shown a most ignoble exultation over their illustrious cap- tiAe. That they paraded him through their tOAvns, exhibiting liim to the populace, seems to be AA'ell established, even if we are unwil- ling to believe that they first painted him and fastened a tail on him {Calendar, 10 July 1666). He AA'as kept a prisoner till after the peace, in October 1667. He arriAed in London in NoAember, and on the 12th AAas presented to the king, by Avhom he Avas graciously re- ceived. It may be doubted AA^hether he cA'er serA'ed again, though he is said on doubtful authority to have hoisted his flag in 1668 on board the Triumph, and again in 1671 on board the St. Andrew. In the third Dutch war, beginning in 1672, he held no com- mand ; and it Avould therefore appear probable that he died about that time ; but no record of his death has been preserA'ed. His portrait by Lely is in the Painted Hall at GreenAvich. Sir George Ayscue always wrote his name thus ; but contemporary Avriters, AA-ith the carelessness of their age, misspelt it, among many other Avays, Ayscough and Askew.

[Campbell's LiA-es of the Admirals ; Charnock's Biog. NaA'. i. 89 ; Calendars of .State Papers, 1649-52, 1660-66 ; Pepys's Diary ; Whiteloeke's Memorials ; Brandt's Vie de De Eiiyter. A number of contemporary pamphlets, mostly bearing such titles as ' A Bloudy Fight,' or ' An- other Bloudy Fight at Sea ' (Brit. Mus. Catalogue, s.n. 'Ayscue, George'), are mere crude, hasty, and exaggerated reports, Avithout any authority.]

J, K. L.

AYTON, RICHARD (1786-1823), dra- matist and miscellaneous Avriter, was born in London in 1786. His father, a son of Wil- liam Ayton, banker in Lombard Street, re- moAed some time aftervAards to Macclesfield, Cheshire, and at the grammar school of that town young Ayton obtained a good ele- mentary knoAvledge of Latin and Greek. In accordance Avith the AA'ish of his father, wha

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