Francis Dukinfield Astley
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Francis Dukinfield Astley was an English poet, art collector, agriculturalist, industrialist, and High Sheriff of Cheshire. As a patron of the arts he was influential in the development of Manchester'
Detail from Richard Woodman's engraving of Francis Dukinfield Astley and his Harriers (1809), originally painted by Benjamin Marshall
Francis Dukinfield Astley in Procession as High Sheriff (c.1806/07), unknown artist
View of Dukinfield Lodge (1795), engraved by William Ellis after a painting by Edward Dayes
John Astley (painter)
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John Astley was an English portrait painter and amateur architect, known for his "patronage among a vast circle of fashion" as well as a fortune acquired through marriage.
Francis Dukinfield Astley
…unexpectedly there were widespread rumours—never proven—that he was poisoned by his brother-in-law, Whig politician Thomas Gisborne. Astley's father, John Astley, came from a modest family in Shropshire, but travelled to Rome and Florence in his twenties to study art, and there managed to eke out a living making…
portrait by Joshua Reynolds
Astley's portrait of British banking heir Tyringham Backwell (1754–1777), painted prior to 1777.