[1] In 1803 he opened a stationer's shop at 84 Deansgate, where on 1 January 1805 he issued the prospectus of the Manchester Mail, published at sixpence and professing "no political creed".
He died at Chadderton Hall on 19 October 1844, and was buried at Tonge, adjoining Middleton.
For about 34 years he also enjoyed the closest intimacy with James Montgomery, the poet and editor of the Sheffield Iris, who submitted to him most of his manuscripts for revision and criticism.
[2] In Aston's youth his political views were Liberal and favoured reform, but in later life he wrote in a Conservative spirit.
Richard Wright Procter enumerates Aston's "newspapers, books, and plays" but omits "his pamphlets and reprints on local history" as being too numerous in chapter XIII, Literary Deansgate of his Memorials of Manchester Streets.