 Ashtown was educated at Eton College.On 11 January 1894, he married Violet Grace Cosby, the youngest daughter of Col. Robert Ashworth Godolphin Cosby of Stradbally Hall, Queen's County.Ashtown was a hard-line Unionist; in 1906-10 he edited a monthly publication, "Grievences from Ireland", which denounced all political expressions of Irish nationalism as treasonable.