William Alexander Ayton (28 April 1816 – 1 January 1909) was a British Anglican clergyman with an interest in

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

. He was Vicar of

Chacombe Chacombe (sometimes Chalcombe in the past) is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about north-east of Banbury. It is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary and to the south-east by the B ...

(in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

) from 1873 to 1894. In 1894 he retired on a small pension, and he died at

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

(in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

) in 1909. He translated from Latin the life of

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

written by Thomas Smith. He is generally thought to have been a member of the shadowy ''Society of Eight'' founded in 1883. He became a member of the successor

Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society#Europe, secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late ...

. He was a supporter of the reforms of

Arthur Edward Waite Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith o ...

, which split the Order as the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn and the

Stella Matutina The Stella Matutina (Morning Star) was an initiatory magical order dedicated to the dissemination of the traditional occult teachings of the earlier Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Originally, the outer order of the Stella Matutina was known a ...

. Ayton became a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

in 1868 after visiting the family of his friend Joseph Wallace. Ayton converted to Wallace's dietary system.Gregory, James. (2002)
"The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c. 1840-1901"
eprints.soton.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2022.

References

*''The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn, The Letters of Revd. W. A. Ayton to F. L. Gardner and Others 1886-1905'' (1985) edited Ellic Howe

Notes

External links

Modern Rosicrucian groups
at www.alchemywebsite.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayton, William Alexander 1816 births 1909 deaths 19th-century alchemists 19th-century English Anglican priests 20th-century alchemists English alchemists