Social Victorians/People/Ayton

Also Known As

• Family name: Ayton
• Rev. William Alexander Ayton
• Anne Ayton
• Gilbert spells his last name "Aytoun" (Gilbert 86 140).
• W. A. Ayton's Golden Dawn motto: Virtue Orta, Occident Rarius — "Those who rise by virtue rarely fall" (Howe 297)
• Anne Ayton's Golden Dawn motto: Quam poter adjutabo — "I will help as much as I can" (Howe 85 10)

Demographics

• Nationality:

Residences

• Chacombe, Northamptonshire, at the vicarage there? (c. 1873–1894)
• Grove Lodge, Saffron Walden (?–1 January 1909, his death)

Family

• William Alexander Ayton (28 April 1816 – 1 January 1909)
• Anne Ayton (– 1898)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Acquaintances

• T. H. Pattinson

Friends

• Frederick Gardner, at whose wedding Ayton officiated (Harper 74 101).
• MacGregor and Moina Mathers, at whose wedding Ayton also officiated (ODNB)

Organizations

• Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA, 1841)
• Theosophical Society, Esoteric Section
• Golden Dawn, Isis-Urania Temple
• "Church of England clergyman" ("Ayton, William Alexander" ODNB [by R. A. Gilbert])
• Alchemy Group: Ayton led a small subgroup within the Golden Dawn of people who wanted to practice alchemy: "In the original Golden Dawn there had been a small group that had practiced alchemy under the guidance of the Rev. W. A. Ayton, but this type of work seems to have fallen into abeyance shortly after 1900" (King 89 169). Ayton's "influence upon the modern revival of practical alchemy ... was immense and ... [is] yet to be fully appreciated" (Gilbert 83 56).
• Golden Dawn, Horus Temple

Timeline

1888 July, both Aytons were initiated into the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 140).

1888, Autumnal Equinox, the Equinox Ceremony would have been held at the Isis-Urania Temple in London, and the elderly Ayton and Anne, as Howe puts it, attended these ceremonies "for a time" (Howe 62).

1889 August 31, "Portal Date," that is, both Aytons were initiated into the Inner Order (Gilbert 86 140).

1890 June, Bergson and MacGregor Mathers married, W. A. Ayton officiating (Harper 74 101).

1897 March, Wynn Westcott wrote Frederick Gardner, telling him to ask Florence Farr to "choose a gentleman adept friend" to act as intermediary -- but not Ayton (Howe 169).

1900 April 14, Wynn Westcott assumed Ayton was on, as he wrote, "the Committee to investigate the G. D. which contains Yeats, Bullock and I suppose Ayton" (Howe 217). Because of which ideas or loyalties? Because of Bullock?

Questions and Notes

1. The Aytons were in the Golden Dawn from the beginning and there past the end, though he went with A. E. Waite and Marcus Blackden, that is, with the mystical rather than the magical branch (Gilbert 86 41). Waite called him "co-chief," with himself and Blackden (Harper 74 123, quoting Waite).
2. Not in the DNB but in the ODNB.
3. The letters from Ayton to Frederick Gardner (in the Yorke Collection) are published in Howe's The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 178).
4. Correct spelling of his name?
5. "'Isis and Horus'; 'send Equinox' [i.e., notification of Equinox ceremony]" (Gilbert 86 140).
6. "involved ... for a time" with "The Hermetic Colony Association" -- for bilking believers (Gilbert 86 108). Was Anne Ayton?
7. first one of "the original signatories" of the "report of the Second Convocation of the Independent and Rectified Rite" (Gilbert 86 169).
8. 1900, 14 April, Wynn Westcott assumed Ayton was on, as he wrote, "the Committee to investigate the G. D. which contains Yeats, Bullock and I suppose Ayton" (Howe 217). Because of which ideas or loyalties? Because of Bullock?
9. Was Anne Ayton "involved ... for a time" with "The Hermetic Colony Association" -- for bilking believers, as her husband was? (Gilbert 86 108).

Bibliography

• Gilbert, R. A. "Ayton, William Alexander" ODNB
• Gilbert 1983
• Gilbert 1986
• Harper 1974
• Howe
• Küntz