John William Ashton (24 November 1866 – 20 March 1964) was the second Bishop of Grafton.[1]
Ashton was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1866, the son of George Ashton and his wife Fanny (née Winter).[2]
Ashton was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield and University College, Oxford, following which he was ordained deacon in 1892 and priest in 1893.[3] He began his ordained ministry as a curate at All Saints' Church, Northampton (1892-1895),[4] and then at St Dionysius' Church, Market Harborough (1895-1896). In 1896 he emigrated to Australia where he was Rector of St Andrew's, South Brisbane (1896-1900), Christ Church, Bundaberg (1900-1903), briefly as a curate back in England at St Peter's Church, Huddersfield (1903-1904) and Organising Secretary of the Church of England Sunday School Institute (1904-1905), and a second incumbency at St Andrew's, South Brisbane (1906-1911) and then Vicar of All Saints', East St Kilda (1911-1921) before his ordination to the episcopate. He retired as bishop in 1938.[5]
He married Maud Edith Anderson (1874-1951) in 1898; she was the daughter of the colonial administrator John Gerard Anderson.[6] They had three sons and two daughters. Ashton died on 20 March 1964.[7]