Nicholas Assheton (1590–1625), a country squire and writer who lived at Downham, Lancashire, near Clitheroe, is noteworthy on account of a brief diary which he left.
He probably had his education at Clitheroe grammar school; he married Frances, daughter of Richard Greenacres, of Worston, near Downham; and he died 16 April 1625, leaving issue.
His journal, which extends from 2 May 1617 to 13 March 1619,[1] records his intercourse with his tenants and neighbours, with all their 'businesses, sports, bickerings, carousings, and (such as it was) religion.'
It includes some notices of James I's visit to Lancashire in August 1617, when the petition which originated the Book of Sports was presented to the king.
xiv of the Chetham Society series, from the third or 1818 edition of Whalley, with notes and an account of the Assheton family.