an English learned antiquary and sometime president of St. John's College, Cambridge. Although Ashby published little, his varied learning was the admiration of the best known literary antiquaries of the 18th century, all of whom he reckoned among his friends. He dealt with a wide range of antiquarian topics there; in one letter he proposed an emendation of a line in Hamlet, in another he pointed out errors in the Biographia Britannica. He was a regular contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine. He published a dissertation on a coin of Nerva newly discovered at Colchester in Archaeologia (vol. 3, p. 165).
