Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar

Who was Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar?

Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar was a son of Walter Aston, 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar, and Lady Mary Weston, daughter of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland.

He succeeded his father as Lord Aston of Forfar in the peerage of Scotland in 1678; he resided mainly at Tixall in Staffordshire.

He was twice married, first marrying the widow Eleanor Blount Knightley of Soddington in Worcestershire, England, who died in 1674. He next married Catherine Gage of Firle in Sussex, who died in 1720. Like his father he was an ardent Roman Catholic, and effective leader of the large Catholic community in Staffordshire . As such he was a principal target of informers during the Popish Plot, in particular his former steward Stephen Dugdale whose perjured evidence sent him to the Tower of London in 1679 on charges of conspiracy to kill King Charles II although he was never brought to trial, and was simply released in the summer of 1680.

He died in 1714, and was succeeded by his third but eldest surviving son Walter Aston, 4th Lord Aston of Forfar. A younger son, Charles Aston, served with the British Army in Ireland and was killed in action at the Battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690.