Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - even more aspects - Slavery - echoes of the past . . . .

The Ashley Hall Estate was registered until 1839 to Rev. John's father and he passed away in 1850. His last will and testament was complex, perhaps signifying that he was a man of means. At his death, the Ashley Hall estate was left to his wife, Elizabeth, some in trust, and income from the estate divided between the six children with the Rev. John Ashley receiving one third initially.

The Rev. John Ashley was already a man of means by 1822, having inherited a large property near Dublin from an unidentified Lord. Subsequently, his income from the church was modest and he received a reduced stipend due to his private income. A meager stipend of £70 per year for his work at a church near Wells, Somerset, was paid in 1827.

Forward to 1852 and the Rev. John Ashley was addressing a public meeting in aid of the mission was held at the New Town Hall, Cardiff : -

In the year 1836 the mission was commenced under the Rev. Doctor's auspices, and up to 1841 was entirely supported out of his own private means. At that period circumstances occurred which deprived Dr. Ashley of the means of continuing the mission at his sole expense but he still held on, and continued to do so, in a most exemplary manner, up to the present day. Now, it might be asked what were the uses of the mission, and for whose benefit were the applications made? In the pamphlet to which he (the chairman) had alluded, the directors state.

It should not be forgotten that this mission is, as far as we know, the first effort of the kind ever made for seamen, and the Eirene the first vessel of the sort ever equipped for such a purpose. While we have had our floating chapel moored in port, for that particular port, we never before had a sailing vessel fitted up with a chapel within, to meet the seamen in the roadsteads after they had left their several ports, and to move with them from roadstead to roadstead, affirming, at the same time, an opportunity of visiting the Islands mid the Light Vessel in the Bristol Channel.