Robert Aske (24 February 1619 – 27 January 1689) was a 17th-century English philanthropist, merchant and haberdasher, who served as an Alderman of London.

Originally from Scarborough in Yorkshire, his father Robert Aske was an affluent draper who apprenticed him to John Trott, a London haberdasher (dealer in raw silk) and East India Company merchant.

[1] From 1671 Aske held £500 of original stock in the slave-trading Royal African Company,[2] where he was one of 198 stockholders, entitling him to a single vote.

[3] Elected Master of the Haberdashers' Company, he was removed from that position by James II in 1687 when the Catholic King lost faith in Aske, a Protestant.

[7][8][9] Despite marrying twice, Aske had no children and bequeathed the bulk of his sizeable estate for charitable purposes, £32,000 (equivalent to £7.3m as of 2023[4]), to the livery company which launched his career.