{{short description|British carpenter and dissenting tutor (1722–1775)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Caleb Ashworth | birth_date = 1722 | birth_place = [[Cloughfold]], [[England]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1775|7|18|1722|df=y}} | children = 3 sons and daughters }}
'''Caleb Ashworth''', D.D. (1722 – 18 July 1775) was an English [[dissenting tutor]].
==Life== Ashworth was born in [[Cloughfold]] in 1722.<ref>The date rests on Palmer's statement that he was ‘but fifty-three years of age’ at death, and on the monumental inscription given in Baker's ‘Northamptonshire’ (i. 332).</ref> His father, Richard Ashworth, who died in 1751, aged 84, was a lay preacher among the [[Particular Baptists]]; he had three sons—Thomas, Particular Baptist minister at [[Heckmondwike]]; Caleb; and John, a General Baptist minister, colleague of [[James Foster (Baptist minister)|Dr. James Foster]], who preached his [[funeral sermon]] in 1742.
Caleb Ashworth was originally a carpenter; he probably was not in sympathy with his father's views, and thus did not at first turn to the ministry. He was afterwards educated for the independent ministry, under [[Philip Doddridge]], at [[Northampton]], where he first took up his quarters in 1739; and settled at Daventry in 1746, originally as assistant to James Floyd.
Under Doddridge's will, the management of the academy was left to Ashworth, and, as the Northampton congregation did not elect him their minister, he moved it to [[Daventry]] in 1752 (see [[Daventry Academy]]). He obtained the degree of D.D. from [[Scotland]] in 1759. He died on 18 July 1775.
==Influence== Under Ashworth, Daventry Academy became a leading seat of culture among liberal independents and presbyterians, who at that time were close, and shared views on theology and church polity. A list of his students is in ''[[Monthly Repository]]'', 1822. The academy covered languages, biblical criticism, and ecclesiastical history quite weakly; its staple was dogmatics and philosophy, including psychology (then called [[pneumatology]]), ethics, and physics. Ashworth published for his academy a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] Grammar.
His most distinguished scholar was [[Joseph Priestley]], who says that Ashworth took "the orthodox side of every question" in theology and philosophy, the sub-tutor, Samuel Clark, "that of heresy". Doddridge's plan of referring to authors on all sides of every question, and requiring his students to give an account of them, was pursued by his successors. Rev. T. Thomas, a former pupil <ref>Rev. T. Thomas, in ''Month. Rep''., 1814, p. 79.</ref> says: "Under Dr. Doddridge there was a more popular exterior; under Dr. Ashworth a more disciplined interior."
==Family== He married a Miss Hemings, and together they had three sons and three daughters. His son John entered Daventry Academy in 1760, but became a grazier.
==References== {{reflist}} {{Cite DNB|wstitle=Ashworth, Caleb}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashworth, Caleb}} [[Category:English carpenters]] [[Category:18th-century English educators]] [[Category:Dissenting academy tutors]] [[Category:People from Cloughfold]] [[Category:1722 births]] [[Category:1775 deaths]]