Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar

He was twice married, first marrying Eleanor Blount Knightley of Soddington in Worcestershire, England, widow of Robert Knightley, and daughter of Sir Walter Blount, 1st Baronet, and his wife Elizabeth Wylde, daughter of George Wylde, by whom he had five surviving children, and who died in 1674.

By Elizabeth, he had four sons who reached adulthood, Edward, Francis, Walter, 4th Lord Aston and Charles, and one daughter Mary, who never married.

His former steward Stephen Dugdale, whom he had dismissed for stealing money to pay his gambling debts, turned on him and gave perjured evidence which sent Aston and his brother William to the Tower of London in 1679 on charges of conspiracy to kill King Charles II[2] Dugdale was a charming, educated and plausible man, who made a noticeably different impression on the Government from the unsavoury parade of previous informers like Titus Oates and Thomas Dangerfield, some of whom were notorious criminals.

In his last years, he felt sufficiently secure in his position to complain about his exclusion, on the grounds of his religion, from the House of Lords.

A younger son, Charles Aston, served with the British Army in Ireland and was killed in action at the Battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690.