Asgill

Asgill, JOHN, an eccentric writer, born at Hanley Castle, Worcestershire (1659), was called to the bar in 1692. Having got into difficulties, he sailed in 1699 for Ireland, where an act for the resumption of forfeited estates promised plenty of lawsuits. His talents gained him a lucrative practice; and in 1703 he even obtained a seat in the Irish parliament. Three years before, however, he had pub- lished a paradoxical pamphlet, bepraised by Cole-ridge, to prove that by the rules of English law, the redeemed need not die. Much to his own surprise, the public flew into a rage against this absurd production; the Irish parliament voted it a blasphemous libel, and the astonished author was expelled the House. In 1705 he returned to England, and entered the English parliament as member for Bramber, in Sussex. But the fame of his unlucky pamphlet haunted him perpetually; for the English House condemned it to be burned by the common hangman, and expelled Asgill in 1707. At last he found something like peace in the King's Bench and the Fleet, where he continued to practise professionally, and to indite innumerable pamphlets. He died in November 1738.