Author.  Born on King Street, Manchester, he was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and, at the age of sixteen, was articled to a solicitor. In 1824 his father died, and he went to London to study at the Inner Temple. In 1826 he married daughter of a publisher who was also the Manager of the Opera House. At his father-in-law’s suggestion, Ainsworth went into business as a publisher, but abandoned this career after about eighteen months. Instead, he devoted himself to writing a series of historical novels. The first of these was “Rookwood” (1831), which includes a famous description of Dick Turpin’s ride to York on Black Bess. The best known of his other thirty-eight books are “The Tower of London” (1840); “Old St. Paul’s” (1841); and “The Flitch of Bacon, or the Custom of Dunmow” (1854). He died at Reigate in Surrey. (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)