Thomas Ashe (1770-1835) was born at Glasnevin, near Dublin, and became a writer following a short career in the army and several years of foreign travel. Throughout the present correspondence, Ashe attempts to prove that he is sincere in his wish to repent and improve himself, and writes of his intention to travel to Botany Bay, a plan he plainly does not wish to pursue and subsequently abandons, but which he is later forced to renew when alternative plans for opening a school and producing a weekly newspaper fail to raise the necessary funds.

Ashe was the author of several novels, memoirs, and political articles, including Memoirs of mammoth, and various other extraordinary and stupendous bones, of incognita, or non-descript animals... (Liverpool, 1806); Travels in America performed in 1806... (London, 1808); The spirit of 'the book'; or, Memoirs of Caroline princess of Hasburgh, a romance..., 1812; Memoirs and confessions of captain Ashe (London, 1815); and The charms of dandyism; or, Living in style, by Olivia Moreland (London, 1819). A full list of works available at the Bodleian Libraries can be found on SOLO. For further details of Thomas Ashe see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.