[1] After he had finished his own education, he began his career as schoolmaster at Bolton; from there he went to London; and at Bethnal Green, Hackney, and other suburban villages, continued to run a school until he retired some years before his death.
Ainsworth died on 4 April 1743, at the age of 82, and was buried at St Matthias Old Church, Poplar, where an inscription in Latin verse, written by himself, was placed over his remains and those of his wife.
[3] In 1736, after about twenty years' labour, Ainsworth published his major work, with a dedication to Richard Mead, and a preface explaining his reasons for undertaking it.
[6] Earlier, Ainsworth had published a treatise on education, entitled The most Natural and Easy Way of Institution (1698), in which he advocated the teaching of Latin by conversational methods and deprecates punishment of any sort.
[7] Ainsworth was author also Monumenta Vetustatis Kempiana (1720), an expansive account of the classical collection of John Kemp,[6] of A Short Treatise on Grammar, and some smaller pieces.