THE ASCOUGH FAMILY HISTORY
I have found records of the family going back to the birth of Thomas Ascough around 1735. My searches into the family history of the Askew family started with George Askew who was born on 27th December 1852 in the tiny village of Toynton St Peter in Lincolnshire. In 1871 the population was 342. One of eight children, George married Jane Cuthbertson on 23rd November 1873 at Rotherham Parish Church (the same church where his son Ralph married Edith Leather on 1st August 1921 and their daughter (my mother) married my father on 7th December 1943). George's birth certificate records his surname as Askew but the marriage certificate says Ascough. Hence why it took me so long to track down the record of their marriage.
I have found records of the family going back to the birth of Thomas Ascough around 1735. My searches into the family history of the Askew family started with George Askew who was born on 27th December 1852 in the tiny village of Toynton St Peter in Lincolnshire. In 1871 the population was 342. One of eight children, George married Jane Cuthbertson on 23rd November 1873 at Rotherham Parish Church (the same church where his son Ralph married Edith Leather on 1st August 1921 and their daughter (my mother) married my father on 7th December 1943). George's birth certificate records his surname as Askew but the marriage certificate says Ascough. Hence why it took me so long to track down the record of their marriage.
George's parents were James Ascough (born in 1808 and christened in nearby Toynton All Saints on 27th March 1808) or Ayscough (note the changes of spelling) who was an Agricultural Labourer and Lucy Ascough, formerly Sharpe. They married on 20th September 1833 at Wainfleet St Mary, the home of the Sharpe family. Lucy died in 1854 at the age of 39 and was buried at Toynton St Peter on 1st December of that year.
Five years later (according to details on the 1851 Census where their first children William and Mary are recorded as being born there in 1838 and 1841) they were living at Thorpe (presumably Thorpe St Peter just outside Wainfleet) and then in 1843 they were living in Toynton St Peter where their children Henry, James and Samuel were born.
Lucy Sharpe was christened at Wainfleet St Mary on 18th May 1817. Her parents were John Sharpe and Sarah Roades who married at Wainfleet St Mary in 1804. They had three other children: William (christened 21st October 1804), David (christened 30th November 1806) and John (christened 25th January 1810). All were christened at Wainfleet St Mary. Wainfleet St Mary was equally small; the population in 1811 was 475. It is only ten miles away from Toynton St Peter.
The father of James was John Ayscough (1781 – 1846) christened at Toynton St Peter on 4th November 1781 and buried at Toynton All Saints in 1846. He married Elizabeth Young on 28th July 1805 at Toynton St Peter and they had two other children, Mary (christened on 25th January 1807 at Toynton all Saints and William who was christened on the same day as James, so they could have been twins. The records give all their names this time as Ayscough.
John’s father was another John Ascough (1758-1844) christened on 20th October 1758 at Toynton St Peter and was buried at Toynton All Saints in 1844 at the grand old age of 85. He married to Mary Bartholmew in 1780 in Toynton but they do not seem to have had any other children.
John’s father was Thomas Ascough born around 1735. He and his wife Susanna have another four children (Mary, Thomas, John, Elizabeth and Edward) christened at either Toynton St Peter or Toynton All Saints.
Again, the spelling of the surname varies between Ascough and Ayscough. The record of James’ marriage to Lucy even has Askew as his surname, but in the Census of 1851 and 1861, he is back to Ascough. When I was struggling to find ancestors of George Askew, I was lucky to receive advice from Ruth at Lincolnshire Family History Society who said “I don’t think there is a surname in the county which will come with more spelling variations”.
Going back to George Askew, his birth in December 1852 was registered by his mother Lucy with a cross for her mark. I guess that there was little education for these families working on the land. George was one of eight children: John, William, Mary, Henry, James, Samuel, George, and Thomas, all born between 1836 and 1855.
We next catch up with George in the Census 1861 when he was aged 9 and living with his family in Toynton St Peter. He is recorded there as a scholar, but whether he went to school is another question entirely. His father James is 52 and is an agricultural labourer. His mother Lucy had died in 1854 aged 39 and was buried on 1st December 1854 at St Peter’s Church, Toynton St Peter. She could have died in childbirth. Their youngest son is Thomas who was recorded in the 1861 Census as having been born in 1855, but his Birth Certificate is for the last quarter of 1854, just when Lucy died.
By the 1861 Census, James has remarried to Jane aged 45. The elder sons, John (25) and James (16) are also recorded as agricultural labourers. Younger sons Samuel (12) and Thomas (6) are scholars like George.
In the 1871 Census (notoriously unreliable), George is recorded as 17 years old but we know he was 19. The family is still living in Toynton St Peter: James is 63 and Jane 55. There is only one other child recorded there and that is John recorded as 29 but actually 35. The family name is recorded as Ascaugh, another variant.
But only two years later, at the age of 20, George is in Rotherham and being married to Jane Cuthbertson on 23rd November 1873 at Rotherham Parish Church (the same church where my mother and father were married). On the marriage certificate, George Ascough (a Miner) is said to be 22 but in fact he was almost 21. Jane is 17. Their fathers are named correctly as James Ascough (Labourer) and Thomas Cuthbertson (Joiner). It may be that none of their families were present as the witnesses are two people I don’t recognise.
Jane Cuthbertson was born on the 30th November 1856 in East Jarrow, Durham. Her parents were Thomas Cuthbertson and Eleanor Cuthbertson, formerly Serowther.
So George moved to Rotherham in 1872 at the age of 19 to work as a coal miner at one of the pits around Rotherham. His marriage to Jane alluded me for a long time as he is named on the certificate as Ascough and not Askew.
At the 1881 Census George is now 28, married to Jane Cuthbertson 24 and they have two children: James 2 and a baby Lilly. George is a Coal Miner. They are living at No 3, Court 2, College Road, Kimberworth, Rotherham.
What we do know is that their eldest child, Eleanor, was born in 1877 and was living at the age of 4 with Jane's parents, possibly because Jane had just given birth to her third child Lilly, a sister to their second child James. However Eleanor was again living with her grandparents ten years later according to the 1891 Census.
At the 1891 Census, the address is given as 22 College Road, Kimberworth, Masbrough, Rotherham. The family has grown! George at 38 is still a Coal Miner and Jane is 34 looking after the children: Lilly 10 (son James would have been 12 but is not recorded), Mary 8, Isabella 6, Jane 4 and Thomas 1. There are also four Beresford visitors recorded of who the wife Clara is from Lincolnshire.
At the 1901 Census they are now living at 46 Chemist Lane, Masbrough, Rotherham. George is 48 and a Coal Miner Hewer. Jane is 44 and the children are Thomas now 11, Lucy 9, George 6, Ralph 5 and Rose 3. Also living there are five Harrisons, the parents and three children. The wife Eleanor is the first child of George and Jane.
At the census of 1911, George and the family are living at House No 2, Court 3, Mary Street, Masbrough, Rotherham. George is 57 (actually 58), Jane is 54, Thomas 21, George 17, Ralph (my grandfather) 15, Rose 13 and Jane’s mother Ellen, a widow aged 75. George is still a Coal Miner and so is Thomas. Young George and Ralph are Pit Boys Underground.
To recap on the children of George and Jane. They are Eleanor, James, Lilly, Mary, Isabella, Jane, Thomas, Lucy, George, Ralph (my grandfather) and Rose. So eleven children with possibly only James having dies as a child. But when I went to see my Aunt Iris (my mother's sister) she had never heard of the five elder sisters (her and mother's aunts). She only knew of the youngest child, Thomas, and all his younger brothers and sisters. So why had nothing ever been said about the elder children?
So what happened to these mystery sisters? We know that Eleanor married a Ralph Harrison and by the 1911 Census they had five children. Lilly was 20 by the 1901 Census and probably had married as there is no record under her maiden name. Mary was 18 and may also have married. Isabella was 17 in 1901 and was in the employ of a Publican, Walter Holloway and his wife Annie, as a General Domestic Servant at The Miner's Arms in Rotherham. The same year Jane was only 14 but already in employment as a Kitchen Maid to another Publican, Arthur Berwick and his wife Mary at Handsworth in Sheffield. But why my aunt (and probably my mother) had never heard of them is a mystery that will never be solved.
George died at 29 Mary Street in February on 7th February 1926 at the age of 73, excellent longevity for a miner. His cause of death was a Cerebral Thrombosis. Present at his death was his daughter Rose Askew (28). According to the NBI, he is buried in the Cemetery at Masbrough, Rotherham.
What I now realise is that although we know that George's father James was, according to the 1851 Census, an agricultural labourer, this is not necessarily the case for the previous three generations: John Ayscough (1781 - 1846), John Ascough (1758 - 1844) and Thomas Ascough (1735 - ?). It is possible they combined working for the local landowners in the enclosed fields at the end of the Wolds above the East Fen with being fen commoners. Certainly before 1800, the villages on the margins of the fen had common rights on the wholly unenclosed East Fen, West Fen and Wildmore Fen.
THE ASKEW SURNAME
Askew, Ascough, Ascaugh, Ayscough, Ainscough or Ainscow etc. All a derivation of the locational name of Aiskew in the North Riding of Yorkshire. My mother's maiden name is Askew. But when I came to searching the census records for her great grandfather, I could not find a single entry. I knew mum's grandfather George Askew was born in Toynton St Peter in the wilds of Lincolnshire in 1852, and that his parents were James and Lucy Askew. But there was no sign of them on any census record.
I took a chance and e-mailed the Lincolnshire Family History Society to see if they could recommend a researcher that would look at some parish records. I was amazed to receive a lengthy reply from Ruth with lots of suggestions. The main one was "I don't think there is a surname in the county which will come with more spelling variations". Ruth had actually found James and Lucy Ascough on the 1851 Census. When I found the same entry, they already had five children. They were also there on the 1861 census, this time with two more children, one of whom was George Ascough.
I found the following extract from: The Internet Surname Database
This surname recorded as Askew, Ascough, Ascaugh, Ainscough and Ainscow, is of Old Norse origin, and is a locational name from Aiskew in the North Riding of Yorkshire, deriving from the elements "eiki" meaning oak, plus "skogr", wood; hence, "oak wood". The place name appears as "Echescol" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Aykescogh" in the Feet of Fines of 1235. During the Middle Ages, when it was increasingly common for people to migrate from their birthplace to seek work further afield, the custom developed that they would adopt the place name as a means of identification. The surname dates back to the mid 14th Century (see below), and early recordings include: Robert Ascowe (1390) in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London, and William Askew (1488) in the Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York. London Church Records list the christening of James Askew in 1550, at St. Margaret's, Westminster. Thomas Askew, an emigrant to the New World, embarked in the "Alice" from London bound for Virginia on July 13th 1635. A Coat of Arms granted to an Askew family is a black shield, a gold fesse, between three silver asses passant, gold maned and hoofed. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Aykescoghe, which was dated 1366, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Lancashire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
So the task of tracking down these ancestors was far from straightforward. I had found the family of James Ascough on the 1851 and 1861 census, so I was searching for his birth on familysearch.org. There the IGI is now available online instead of having to trawl through CD's at the library as I have done in the past. I found James' christening on 27th March 1808 in Toynton All Saints, the adjacent village to Toynton St Peter where he was on the later census. But his surname was recorded as Ayscough, with his parents named as John and Elizabeth Ayscough. I also found the christening records of James' siblings Mary (25th January 1 could 807 in Toynton St Peter) and William, christened on the same day as James. So they be twins, or they were just christened together.
I then found the christening of their father John Ayscough on 4th November 1781 in Toynton St Peter with his parents recorded as John and Mary Ayscough. John was christened with the surname Ascough on 20th October 1758 in Toynton St Peter. His parents were Thomas and Susannah Ascough. They had five children: Mary, Thomas, John, Elizabeth and Edward. All were christened Ascough except for Elizabeth whose surname was Askew. And they were all christened in Toynton St Peter from 1754 to 1760 except for Edward in Toynton All Saints in 1764. And it is in the churchyard of Toynton All Saints that John, christened in 1758, is buried in 1844 having gained the grand old age of 85, and his son John, christened in 1781, is also buried this time in 1846. All courtesy of the National Burial Index.
What is interesting is how the surname has changed over the years. From Ascough to Ayscough in the eighteenth century, to Ascough again when those recording the census in the mid nineteenth century wrote down the name, and finally to Askew when George's birth was registered in 1852.
Five years later (according to details on the 1851 Census where their first children William and Mary are recorded as being born there in 1838 and 1841) they were living at Thorpe (presumably Thorpe St Peter just outside Wainfleet) and then in 1843 they were living in Toynton St Peter where their children Henry, James and Samuel were born.
Lucy Sharpe was christened at Wainfleet St Mary on 18th May 1817. Her parents were John Sharpe and Sarah Roades who married at Wainfleet St Mary in 1804. They had three other children: William (christened 21st October 1804), David (christened 30th November 1806) and John (christened 25th January 1810). All were christened at Wainfleet St Mary. Wainfleet St Mary was equally small; the population in 1811 was 475. It is only ten miles away from Toynton St Peter.
The father of James was John Ayscough (1781 – 1846) christened at Toynton St Peter on 4th November 1781 and buried at Toynton All Saints in 1846. He married Elizabeth Young on 28th July 1805 at Toynton St Peter and they had two other children, Mary (christened on 25th January 1807 at Toynton all Saints and William who was christened on the same day as James, so they could have been twins. The records give all their names this time as Ayscough.
John’s father was another John Ascough (1758-1844) christened on 20th October 1758 at Toynton St Peter and was buried at Toynton All Saints in 1844 at the grand old age of 85. He married to Mary Bartholmew in 1780 in Toynton but they do not seem to have had any other children.
John’s father was Thomas Ascough born around 1735. He and his wife Susanna have another four children (Mary, Thomas, John, Elizabeth and Edward) christened at either Toynton St Peter or Toynton All Saints.
Again, the spelling of the surname varies between Ascough and Ayscough. The record of James’ marriage to Lucy even has Askew as his surname, but in the Census of 1851 and 1861, he is back to Ascough. When I was struggling to find ancestors of George Askew, I was lucky to receive advice from Ruth at Lincolnshire Family History Society who said “I don’t think there is a surname in the county which will come with more spelling variations”.
Going back to George Askew, his birth in December 1852 was registered by his mother Lucy with a cross for her mark. I guess that there was little education for these families working on the land. George was one of eight children: John, William, Mary, Henry, James, Samuel, George, and Thomas, all born between 1836 and 1855.
We next catch up with George in the Census 1861 when he was aged 9 and living with his family in Toynton St Peter. He is recorded there as a scholar, but whether he went to school is another question entirely. His father James is 52 and is an agricultural labourer. His mother Lucy had died in 1854 aged 39 and was buried on 1st December 1854 at St Peter’s Church, Toynton St Peter. She could have died in childbirth. Their youngest son is Thomas who was recorded in the 1861 Census as having been born in 1855, but his Birth Certificate is for the last quarter of 1854, just when Lucy died.
By the 1861 Census, James has remarried to Jane aged 45. The elder sons, John (25) and James (16) are also recorded as agricultural labourers. Younger sons Samuel (12) and Thomas (6) are scholars like George.
In the 1871 Census (notoriously unreliable), George is recorded as 17 years old but we know he was 19. The family is still living in Toynton St Peter: James is 63 and Jane 55. There is only one other child recorded there and that is John recorded as 29 but actually 35. The family name is recorded as Ascaugh, another variant.
But only two years later, at the age of 20, George is in Rotherham and being married to Jane Cuthbertson on 23rd November 1873 at Rotherham Parish Church (the same church where my mother and father were married). On the marriage certificate, George Ascough (a Miner) is said to be 22 but in fact he was almost 21. Jane is 17. Their fathers are named correctly as James Ascough (Labourer) and Thomas Cuthbertson (Joiner). It may be that none of their families were present as the witnesses are two people I don’t recognise.
Jane Cuthbertson was born on the 30th November 1856 in East Jarrow, Durham. Her parents were Thomas Cuthbertson and Eleanor Cuthbertson, formerly Serowther.
So George moved to Rotherham in 1872 at the age of 19 to work as a coal miner at one of the pits around Rotherham. His marriage to Jane alluded me for a long time as he is named on the certificate as Ascough and not Askew.
At the 1881 Census George is now 28, married to Jane Cuthbertson 24 and they have two children: James 2 and a baby Lilly. George is a Coal Miner. They are living at No 3, Court 2, College Road, Kimberworth, Rotherham.
What we do know is that their eldest child, Eleanor, was born in 1877 and was living at the age of 4 with Jane's parents, possibly because Jane had just given birth to her third child Lilly, a sister to their second child James. However Eleanor was again living with her grandparents ten years later according to the 1891 Census.
At the 1891 Census, the address is given as 22 College Road, Kimberworth, Masbrough, Rotherham. The family has grown! George at 38 is still a Coal Miner and Jane is 34 looking after the children: Lilly 10 (son James would have been 12 but is not recorded), Mary 8, Isabella 6, Jane 4 and Thomas 1. There are also four Beresford visitors recorded of who the wife Clara is from Lincolnshire.
At the 1901 Census they are now living at 46 Chemist Lane, Masbrough, Rotherham. George is 48 and a Coal Miner Hewer. Jane is 44 and the children are Thomas now 11, Lucy 9, George 6, Ralph 5 and Rose 3. Also living there are five Harrisons, the parents and three children. The wife Eleanor is the first child of George and Jane.
At the census of 1911, George and the family are living at House No 2, Court 3, Mary Street, Masbrough, Rotherham. George is 57 (actually 58), Jane is 54, Thomas 21, George 17, Ralph (my grandfather) 15, Rose 13 and Jane’s mother Ellen, a widow aged 75. George is still a Coal Miner and so is Thomas. Young George and Ralph are Pit Boys Underground.
To recap on the children of George and Jane. They are Eleanor, James, Lilly, Mary, Isabella, Jane, Thomas, Lucy, George, Ralph (my grandfather) and Rose. So eleven children with possibly only James having dies as a child. But when I went to see my Aunt Iris (my mother's sister) she had never heard of the five elder sisters (her and mother's aunts). She only knew of the youngest child, Thomas, and all his younger brothers and sisters. So why had nothing ever been said about the elder children?
So what happened to these mystery sisters? We know that Eleanor married a Ralph Harrison and by the 1911 Census they had five children. Lilly was 20 by the 1901 Census and probably had married as there is no record under her maiden name. Mary was 18 and may also have married. Isabella was 17 in 1901 and was in the employ of a Publican, Walter Holloway and his wife Annie, as a General Domestic Servant at The Miner's Arms in Rotherham. The same year Jane was only 14 but already in employment as a Kitchen Maid to another Publican, Arthur Berwick and his wife Mary at Handsworth in Sheffield. But why my aunt (and probably my mother) had never heard of them is a mystery that will never be solved.
George died at 29 Mary Street in February on 7th February 1926 at the age of 73, excellent longevity for a miner. His cause of death was a Cerebral Thrombosis. Present at his death was his daughter Rose Askew (28). According to the NBI, he is buried in the Cemetery at Masbrough, Rotherham.
What I now realise is that although we know that George's father James was, according to the 1851 Census, an agricultural labourer, this is not necessarily the case for the previous three generations: John Ayscough (1781 - 1846), John Ascough (1758 - 1844) and Thomas Ascough (1735 - ?). It is possible they combined working for the local landowners in the enclosed fields at the end of the Wolds above the East Fen with being fen commoners. Certainly before 1800, the villages on the margins of the fen had common rights on the wholly unenclosed East Fen, West Fen and Wildmore Fen.
THE ASKEW SURNAME
Askew, Ascough, Ascaugh, Ayscough, Ainscough or Ainscow etc. All a derivation of the locational name of Aiskew in the North Riding of Yorkshire. My mother's maiden name is Askew. But when I came to searching the census records for her great grandfather, I could not find a single entry. I knew mum's grandfather George Askew was born in Toynton St Peter in the wilds of Lincolnshire in 1852, and that his parents were James and Lucy Askew. But there was no sign of them on any census record.
I took a chance and e-mailed the Lincolnshire Family History Society to see if they could recommend a researcher that would look at some parish records. I was amazed to receive a lengthy reply from Ruth with lots of suggestions. The main one was "I don't think there is a surname in the county which will come with more spelling variations". Ruth had actually found James and Lucy Ascough on the 1851 Census. When I found the same entry, they already had five children. They were also there on the 1861 census, this time with two more children, one of whom was George Ascough.
I found the following extract from: The Internet Surname Database
This surname recorded as Askew, Ascough, Ascaugh, Ainscough and Ainscow, is of Old Norse origin, and is a locational name from Aiskew in the North Riding of Yorkshire, deriving from the elements "eiki" meaning oak, plus "skogr", wood; hence, "oak wood". The place name appears as "Echescol" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Aykescogh" in the Feet of Fines of 1235. During the Middle Ages, when it was increasingly common for people to migrate from their birthplace to seek work further afield, the custom developed that they would adopt the place name as a means of identification. The surname dates back to the mid 14th Century (see below), and early recordings include: Robert Ascowe (1390) in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London, and William Askew (1488) in the Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York. London Church Records list the christening of James Askew in 1550, at St. Margaret's, Westminster. Thomas Askew, an emigrant to the New World, embarked in the "Alice" from London bound for Virginia on July 13th 1635. A Coat of Arms granted to an Askew family is a black shield, a gold fesse, between three silver asses passant, gold maned and hoofed. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Aykescoghe, which was dated 1366, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Lancashire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
So the task of tracking down these ancestors was far from straightforward. I had found the family of James Ascough on the 1851 and 1861 census, so I was searching for his birth on familysearch.org. There the IGI is now available online instead of having to trawl through CD's at the library as I have done in the past. I found James' christening on 27th March 1808 in Toynton All Saints, the adjacent village to Toynton St Peter where he was on the later census. But his surname was recorded as Ayscough, with his parents named as John and Elizabeth Ayscough. I also found the christening records of James' siblings Mary (25th January 1 could 807 in Toynton St Peter) and William, christened on the same day as James. So they be twins, or they were just christened together.
I then found the christening of their father John Ayscough on 4th November 1781 in Toynton St Peter with his parents recorded as John and Mary Ayscough. John was christened with the surname Ascough on 20th October 1758 in Toynton St Peter. His parents were Thomas and Susannah Ascough. They had five children: Mary, Thomas, John, Elizabeth and Edward. All were christened Ascough except for Elizabeth whose surname was Askew. And they were all christened in Toynton St Peter from 1754 to 1760 except for Edward in Toynton All Saints in 1764. And it is in the churchyard of Toynton All Saints that John, christened in 1758, is buried in 1844 having gained the grand old age of 85, and his son John, christened in 1781, is also buried this time in 1846. All courtesy of the National Burial Index.
What is interesting is how the surname has changed over the years. From Ascough to Ayscough in the eighteenth century, to Ascough again when those recording the census in the mid nineteenth century wrote down the name, and finally to Askew when George's birth was registered in 1852.