(1729-1788)
Born on the 5th March 1729 of Lady Darcy Lever of Alkrington,
and baptised at Middleton Church, Ashton Lever was born into
landed gentry and occupants of Akrington Hall – a family of
considerable local wealth and power. His father, Darcy had,
since student days, been a close friend of John Byrom of Manchester
and had also served as High Sheriff of Lancashire. Sir Darcy
died in 1742 when Ashton was just 13, and he was educated by
the Reverend John Clayton at St. Cyprians in Salford – one of
his classmates was Charles White.
Lever’s predilection for horse racing led him to be active in
re-establishing the Manchester Races at Kersal Moor in 1761.
Lacking the firm hand of a father, in his youth Ashton was somewhat
of a wastrel, such that his courtship of Mary Assheton, the
eldest daughter and heiress of Sir Ralph Assheton of Middleton
came to nothing when her father refused consent to their marriage.
In the event, at age 35 he married the 18 year old Frances Bayley
of Withington, at Prestwich Church in 1764.
Ashton’s interests also included ornithology, and he pursued
this interest until he had collected nearly four thousand live
birds. He also collected stuffed specimens and held a public
display of his collection was made in 1766 at the King’s Arms
in Manchester. His extensive collections of the rare and exotic
included a squirrel monkey, the arctic fox, the flamingo, bird
of paradise, saw fish, corals, tomahawks, scalping knives and
other weapons. These became the basis of the museum which he
established at Alkrington Hall in 1772. Later were added 1000s
of medals, plaster casts, more than 200 drawings, and over 200
“warlike instruments – over 3,000 glass cases in all. Later,
plants and insects were added. Ashton’s obsession with the museum
did not preclude an involvement in public life.
In 1766 he became a Justice of the Peace for the Salford Division,
he served on the Grand Jury at the Lancaster Assizes in 1766
and again in 1786, and in 1771 he served his term as High Sheriff
of the county. He was also a Freemason of the Unanimity Lodge
at Manchester which then met at Crompton’s Coffee House.
He also prospected for coal on his Alkrington
estate, and found several seams of inferior quality and had
established Alkrington Coal Pits by June 1772. They were closed
in 1841. Public recognition of his work as a collector came
in 1778, when Ashton’s Museum was visited by the Royal Family.
The following week, King George III bestowed a knighthood on
Ashton. By this time his museum was regarded as second only
to the British Museum in London. Sir Ashton became the first
President of the Toxophilite Society , a position he held until
his death.
By 1784 the museum collection amounted to a total of 26,662
exhibits of which 2,654 were birds contained in 1,972 glass
cases. Rising costs saw years of appeals for finance, a national
lottery, and one government enquiry and a bill before parliament.
Meanwhile, at Alkrington, Ashton lived for just a few more years,
and died of a chill a few weeks before his fifty ninth birthday.
His funeral was held at Prestwich.
The Lever connection with Alkrington came to an end in 1845,
when the hall and estate were sold to the Lees brothers of Clarksfield,
Oldham, for �57,550.

Lawrence Vaux

William Allen

Joseph Livesey

(1794-1884)
Joseph Livesey, Lancashire social reformer and temperance advocate,
was born in Walton le Dale near Preston on 5 March 1794. Orphaned
at the age of seven he was raised by his grandparents who, by
all accounts, were a poor family of small farming stock. By
the age of 21 Joseph worked winding bobbins; eventually he became
a handloom weaver, working in the cellar of his grandparents
house for a wage of 6 shillings (about 30 pence) a week. Joseph
went on to ply several different trades and professions: by
the late 1820s he was established as a cheese maker in Preston
and during the 1830s he was to be found in business printing
pamphlets, handbills and major temperance journals. In 1844
he established the Preston Guardian the forerunner of the present
Lancashire Evening Post.
In 1816 Livesey moved to live in Preston, where he became a
celebrated temperance reformer and advocated abstinence from
alcoholic drinks. By 1838, the Liveseys were living above a
shop in Church Street, Preston. Joseph and his wife produced
thirteen children, four of whom died in infancy. He also lived
at Toad House Lane (subsequently Todd Lane) in Walton. In his
memoirs he left a graphic description of village life during
his childhood, and his estate constitutes a detailed and comprehensive
portfolio showing the everyday life of the region at that time
– as such it is a major research resource. John Livesey became
a major local manufacturer and employer. The row of weavers’
step houses where the family lived survives today – Livesey
is believed to have lived in at least three of them before his
marriage. He had a warehouse and warping mill in the village
and used many local weavers as outworkers. When he died in 1884
he left an estate valued at �21,500.