AYRIS, Henry. b. 12 Dec. 1805; whipper-in to the Berkeley hounds 1826; huntsman of same pack down to Dec. 1865, when presented with a purse of 500 guineas, and granted an annuity of £100 by Lord Fitzhardinge; the best huntsman of his day. d. Ham near Berkeley 28 April 1874.
AYRTON, Edward Nugent. b. Richmond, Surrey 1815; ed. at Ealing and Trin. coll. Cam., B.A. 1836, M.A. 1840; barrister L.I. 20 Nov. 1845; wrote in the Law Times. d. Bexhill, Sussex 28 Nov. 1873.
AYRTON, Frederick (elder brother of preceding.) b. London 20 March 1812; ed. at Ealing and Addiscombe; 2 lieut. Bombay artillery 1828; captain June 1843 to 11 Sep. 1843, when he retired on a pension; barrister M.T. 30 Jany. 1846; sec. to Abbas Pasha viceroy of Egypt 1851 to 13 July 1854 when he died, educated Ilhami Pasha his only son, sec. to him 1854 to his death 1861; A.I.C.E. 9 June 1835; received title of Bey from the Khedive. d. Arundel gardens, Notting hill London 20 June 1873. Min. of proc. of Instit. of C.E. xxxviii, 306–308 (1874).
Note.—He formed a magnificent collection of Arabic calligraphs and MSS. which he bequeathed to the nation, but unfortunately the conditions with which the bequest was accompanied, prevented the Trustees of the British Museum accepting it.
AYRTON, Matilda (dau. of Mr. Chaplin.) b. Honfleur 1846; passed preliminary examination at the Apothecaries’ Hall 1869 but was refused admission to the later examination on ground of her sex; matriculated at Univ. of Edin.; completed her education at Paris; lived in Japan 1873–77; taught midwifery to a class of Japanese women; M.D. Paris Dec. 1879; a licentiate of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland, when she came out first in the examination; author of Child life in Japan 1879; contributed many articles to periodicals. (m. 1872 Wm. Edward Ayrton professor in Imperial college of engineering, Japan). d. Sloane st. London 19 July 1883. The Englishwoman’s Review 15 Aug. 1883.
AYRTON, William (younger son of Edmund Ayrton 1734–1808, Master of the chapel royal to George iii). b. London 22 Feb. 1777; Captain in Queen’s royal volunteers Westminster; musical and literary critic of the Morning Chronicle 1813–1826; chief originator of Philharmonic society 1813; manager of Opera house London 1817 and 1821; produced Mozart’s Don Giovanni for first time in England 12 April 1817; edited and wrote much in the Harmonicon 1823–33; wrote the musical articles in the Penny Cyclopædia 1833–44; edited the Sacred Minstrelsy 1834–35 and the Musical library 1834–36; one of the original members of Royal institution and of the Athenæum club; F.R.S. 1 June 1837; d. 9 Bridge st. Westminster 8 May 1858.
AYRTON, William Scrope (only son of the preceding). b. 28 April 1804; ed. at Loughborough house school; barrister M.T. 26 Nov. 1830; a registrar of Court of Bankruptcy Aug. 1838 to July 1847; comr. of Leeds district Court of Bankruptcy 5 July 1847 to 31 Dec. 1869 when granted sum of £1800 on abolition of his office; F.S.A. 21 May 1840; author with Basil Montagu of Reports of cases in Bankruptcy 3 vols. 1834–39 and of The law and practice in Bankruptcy 2 vols. 1837. d. Cliffden, Saltburn-by-the-Sea 3 May 1885.
AYSCOUGH, John (son of John Ayscough, Capt. R.N.) b. on board H.M.S. “Swan” during an action on the way from North America 1775; captain R.N. 18 April 1806; protected Sicily against invasion of Joachim Murat 1810; superintended the ordinary at Plymouth 1822–25; Comr. of dockyards at Jamaica and Bermuda; admiral 3 Oct. 1855; awarded good service pension, d. Norwood, Surrey 2 Dec. 1863. O’Byrne (1861) 33–34.
AYTOUN, Robert. b. Edinburgh 1799; ed. at Univ. of Edin.; a writer to the Signet; member of Royal Scottish society of arts 1826; read many papers; A.I.C.E. 1839; invented a safety cage for mines exhibited at great exhibition 1862. d. 9 Sep. 1876.
AYTOUN, William Edmondstoune. b. 21 Abercromby place, Edin. 21 June 1813; ed. at academy and univ. of Edin.; M.A. 1849; a writer to the Signet 1835; an advocate 1840; on the staff of Blackwood’s magazine 1839 to death, contributed more than 120 articles; professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in Univ. of Edin. 22 Oct. 1845 to 1864, during which time he raised number of students from 30 to 1850; sheriff of Orkney and Zetland 29 May 1852; delivered 6 lectures on poetry and dramatic literature at Willis’s Rooms, London 1853; presided at Burns centenary festival at Ayr 25 Jany. 1859; hon. pres. of associated societies of Univ. of Edin. 1860; author of Poland, Homer and other poems [anon.] 1832; Lays of the Scottish cavaliers and other poems 1848, 29 ed. 1883; Firmilian or the student of Badajoz, a spasmodic tragedy by T. Percy Jones [pseud.] 1854; Bon Gaultier ballads (with T. Martin) 1855, 13 ed. 1877; Bothwell, a poem in six parts 1856; edited The ballads of Scotland 2 vols. 1858, 4 ed. 1870. d. Blackhills near Elgin 4 Aug. 1865. Theodore Martin’s Memoir of W. E. Aytoun 1867, portrait; Crombie’s Modern Athenians 1882, portrait.