Askews from Higham

Introduction

Mary Askews birthplace is stated on her death certificate (Mary Askew/Goddard/Sinclair) as the small market town of Higham, Derbyshire, England - close to the border of South Yorkshire. Her date of birth date was listed as 30 August 1820 in “Auntie Belle’s old birthday book”, belonging to Doris Hudson/Smyth. This date is also recorded by Mary Jane Goddard/Hudson for the birthday of her mother, Mary Sinclair (quoted in a letter from Marian Smyth/Charles, 7 July, 1982).

Her parents were Thomas Askew, blacksmith, and Rebecca Askew, formerly McNell. She died on 12 May 1890 at Middle Creek, Creswickshire in the County of Talbot, having been resident 38 years in Victoria, and was buried on 14 May 1890 at the Campbelltown Cemetery. At the time of her death she was 69 years old.

Askews of the Higham District, Derbyshire

A number of families with the surname of Askew lived in the district surrounding Higham. Although Higham has no churchyard, a cursory search of church graveyards in the district surrounding Higham, conducted in September 1993, resulted in the discovery of a number of tombstones bearing the Askew surname in the townships of Shirland, Morton, and Brackenfield.

A study of IGI records from Derbyshire did not produce a definite christening record for Mary Askew. However, as her death certificate lists her parents as Thomas Askew, blacksmith of Higham and Rebecca McNell, two records from Tibshelf are thought to be relevant.These are for Thomas Askew and Rebekah Manknoll (?Rebecca McNell) and their daughter Sarah Askew.

These records assume particular importance when considered together with a gravestone in the Shirland churchyard and the census records for 1841, 1851 and 1861. In 1993, my wife and son and I visited Higham, and we were successful in locating the gravestone of Rebecca McNell/Askew in the churchyard of St Leonard's Church, Shirland, at the foot of the hill to the south-east of Higham. As Higham has no church of its own it would be logical for residents of Higham to conduct their church services, including baptisma, marriages and burials at Shirland. 

Census Records

Census records for 1841 and 1851 confirm that Mary Askew had an elder sister Sarah, and that her father had taken a new wife, Elizabeth, and a further six children were born to the Askew family- Thomas, Ann, James, Edward, Eliza and Ellen.

Askews in the Census Records of Higham, Derbyshire (1841 and 1851)

Notes: Mary Askew (born 30 August, 1820) would have been 20 years old at the time of the 07 June 1841 census, and 30 years old at the 30 March 1851 census. She and her half-brother Thomas left England on the Sir Robert Sale (18 March, 1852 from London and 1 April, 1852 from Plymouth), arriving at Geelong on the 5 July, 1852, after a voyage of 95 days. She is recorded as being 31 years old and her brother Thomas as 22 years old. Ann Askew married William Siddall at Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the June Quarter of 1852, and the couple left soon after from Liverpool on the "Jas Carson". They reached Australia in October 1852. For further details on both Thomas Askew and Ann Askew click the link Thomas and Ann Askew.

The Family of Thomas Askew, Blacksmith of Higham

The family of Thomas Askew of Higham as determined from Parish Records and Census Records:

Notes on Sarah Askew (~1748->1841)

The 1841 census record lists a Sarah Askew, age 93, possibly the mother of Thomas Askew and grandmother of Mary Askew. The following data may be relevant, giving an age of ~53 for Thomas Askew at the time of the census (for the 1841 census, ages would be rounded down to the nearest 5 years to give 50).

 Sarah Askew (presumed to be Thomas Askew’s mother) was age 93 at the time of the 1841 census, and thus would have been born about 1748. She would have been about 21 in 1769 (i.e. at the time of the wedding between William Askew and Sarah Hopkinson. William and Sarah Askew had nine children in the period between about 1774 and 1791, including Thomas, born in about 1788, and christened on 28 June 1788.

 Two children named Sarah Hopkinson were born in the Higham area in the late 1740s, and it is unclear which became the spouse of William Askew. These records are given below: 

It seems most likely to me that Sarah Hopkinson, daughter of James Hopkinson and Margaret, married William Askew, as the name “Ralph” does not appear in any of the records, and the marriage place of South Wingfield is closer to Shirland than North Wingfield.

Other Askew Families in the Higham District

A Mary Askew was christened on 16 February 1822, and was of interest to me in the early stages of research, as the baptism date was not inconsistent with "my" Mary Askew's birth date of 30 August, 1820. The fact that Mary Askew of Tibshelf had a brother Thomas was considered supportive evidence. Mary Askew of Tibshelf was the daughter of Michael Askew and Ellen Ford/Askew, and the members of their family were listed within the records of the Parish of Tibshelf (Tibshelf is a larger town than Higham and occurs several kilometres to the east of Higham).

Children of Michael ASKEW and Ellen FORD