Thomas Ashton (died 29 August 1578, Cambridge) was an English clergyman and schoolmaster, the first headmaster of Shrewsbury School.
[1] This was the accepted identity of the first head master of Shrewsbury School at the time his sketch was written by Thompson Cooper for the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (1885).
The school drew pupils from sons of gentry in surrounding counties, the furthest being from Buckinghamshire and half the boys were boarded at homes in the town.
[5] William Camden, in his Britannia (begun 1577), remarked that "Shrewsbury is inhabited both by Welsh and English, who speak each other's language; and among other things greatly to their praise is the grammar school founded by them, the best filled in all England, whose flourishing state is owing to provision made by its head master, the excellent and worthy Thomas Ashton.
[4] About October 1574 he was sent to Ireland to Essex, who despatched him to negotiate with Tyrlough Lynagh, and subsequently employed him in confidential communications with Queen Elizabeth I and the Privy Council of England.
The 'godlie Father,' as he is styled in a contemporary manuscript, preached a farewell sermon to the inhabitants, then returned to Cambridge, in or near which town he died a fortnight later, in 1578.