Thomas Aston

Thomas Aston, born in 1480 in Checkley, Staffordshire, England was a minor noble of that area due to the marriage of his great-grandfather Roger Aston (1370-1447) to Joyce Freville (1374-1439), a descendant of royalty. The Aston family's ties to the Plantagenet dynasty did little to endear them to the Tudor dynasty.

Aston's father John died in 1484 when he was still a boy, the eighth of 13 children, including three born after his mother remarried. His mother was able to ensure the children were well educated and distributed a generous share of the family fortune to each.

Thomas continued this tradition as he married in 1508, and spent the rest of his life ensuring that his children married well and that his fortune was dispersed in educating them lest it fall into the hands of the Tudors, especially Henry VIII, who had the habit of seizing the properties of nobility which had fallen into disfavour.

Through Aston's elder brother John (1471-1523), the family title of nobility was finally restored when the Tudor line died out in 1603. Initially, James I, King of England granted the title of Order of the Bath to Walter Aston, great great grandson of Thomas's brother John Aston in 1611. He was elevated to Lord Aston of Forfar in 1627. The peerage continued until 1845, when the last Lord Aston (also named Walter) died without issue.

However, by this time, descendants of the Astons were already well-established in the United States.

Thomas Aston's daughter Ellen was married to Robert Lowthrop in 1535. Their grandson John Lathrop was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. He emigrated to New England.