Ashby Haslewood

Ashby Blair Haslewood (1810 – 17 July 1876) was an English clergyman and educationalist who as a young man played first-class cricket for Cambridge University. Haslewood was born in 1810 in Wimbledon, then considered part of Surrey, but the exact date of birth is not known; he was christened at Hampstead on 16 July 1811 and he died in 1876 at Marylebone.

Cricket career

Haslewood played in three matches for Cambridge University that have later been judged to be first-class games: one in each of the 1833, 1834 and 1835 seasons. He batted in the lower order and in the 1835 match at least he bowled, because he is recorded as taking wickets in that game; scorecards for his other matches are incomplete, so it is not possible to determine his exact role, nor whether he batted or bowled right- or left-handed.

Career outside cricket

Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, Haslewood was ordained as a priest in the Church of England after graduation. He was a curate at Boughton Monchelsea in Kent where his father was vicar from 1823 to 1857, and then at Greenwich. From 1845 to 1864 he was priest in charge of St Mark's Church in Marylebone and while there he founded a choir school which moved in 1872 to Leatherhead in Surrey to become St John's School, Leatherhead, where one of the school houses is named after him. He was later a vicar in Coventry, in Maidstone and at Mavesyn Ridware in Staffordshire.

Haslewood's appointment to St Mark's Church in Hamilton Terrace, which is in Maida Vale, was controversial: he donated £3,500 towards the founding of the church and was then appointed as the priest in charge. Correspondence in The Times suggested that there might be an implication of simony in the arrangement.