A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Ash (Francis)
ASH (FRANCIS), bookseller and bookbinder of the City of Worcester, 1644–51. The earliest mention of this bookseller is an entry in the Register of Apprenticeships, 1605–60, at Stationers' Hall, where, under date of December 7th, 1646, it is recorded that Francis Rea, the son of Ann Rea, of Churchill, co. Worcester, had put himself apprentice to Francis Ash for seven years, the indenture bearing date January 6th, 1644. Francis Ash is said to have been a Papist, and to have done a large trade in Popish books and pictures in the West of England. In a pamphlet entitled A second beacon fired by Scintilla written by a London bookseller, Michael Sparke, Sen., q.v., are some interesting particulars relating to Francis Ash, in which it is stated that he was largely employed in obtaining "pictures" for the English Bible, and that he went to France, and there commissioned Hollar to engrave them. In the Historical Catalogue of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Edinburgh editions of the Bible of 1633 are noted as containing these pictures in the New Testament. See Nos, 367, 368. Clement Barksdale's Nympha Libethris, 1651, 8°., has this imprint, "London, Printed for F, A. at Worcester," and in stanzas 56 and 67 the author refers to Ash's skill as a bookbinder. Ash is believed to have died either during, or soon after the siege of Worcester (September, 1651).