Abdias Assheton

Abdias Assheton (or Ashton, first name also given as Abdy or Abdie) (1563 – 1633) was an English clergyman. He is noted for his part in the Essex Rebellion; at that time chaplain to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, he induced the imprisoned Essex to make a full confession.

He was the son of John Assheton, rector of Middleton in Lancashire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, becoming a Fellow in 1590 and being ordained in 1591. There he was in a group of young Puritans including Robert Hill and William Crashawe. With John Allenson he signed articles against Peter Baro, and petitioned for a free college election in 1595. Assheton was Thomas Gataker's tutor at St John's, and with Henry Alvey was an important influence on him. Assheton, Gataker and William Bedell used to go out preaching around the Cambridge area. At the time of the Essex trial Assheton was Junior Dean of the college.

Assheton's attendance was one of the conditions of Essex's surrender. But Assheton was ill, and initially Thomas Dove went to the prisoners. It was only after the trial, when Dove had failed to obtain a confession from Essex, that Assheton came. Essex made a written confession under the guidance of Assheton, whose motivations were questioned by contemporaries who thought him a "hireling" (a view contradicted later by James Spedding and subsequent scholars). Assheton may have been concerned only with Essex's soul, but the evidence from Essex was damning for others: Sir Christopher Blount, Henry Cuffe and Gelly Meyrick.

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