Monday, 11 April 2016

(213) Askew of Redheugh, Pallinsburn and Ladykirk

Askew of Redheugh and Pallinsburn
The precise origins of the Askews of Redheugh and Pallinsburn remain unclear, but the statement in many earlier sources that they descended from the Askews of Greymains (Cumbld) appears to be incorrect. The earliest member of the family I have been able to trace is John Askew (1636-86), gent., who lived at Kirkby Ireleth (otherwise Kirkby-in-Furness) (Lancs) and had five sons and four daughters. His second and youngest sons became doctors of medicine, although where they received their medical training is unclear. The elder of them, Anthony Askew (1670-1739), was a physician in Kendal, Westmorland, and married Anne, the daughter and heiress of Adam Storrs (1629-1702), yeoman, of Storrs Hall at Arkholme (Lancs) (not to be confused with the more famous Storrs Hall on Windermere (Westmld)), who was the widow of Charles Cawson. In 1702 Dr Askew inherited the estate in right of his wife, but it was not then the country house that it became in the mid 19th century, and was probably little more than a farm (an account of Storrs Hall is reserved for a future post on the Pearson family).

The marriage of Anthony Askew and Anne Storrs produced two sons and a daughter, and their elder son Adam Askew (1696-1773), after education at Cambridge, established a highly successful medical practice in Newcastle upon Tyne in about 1723. From then until his death in 1773 he invested the considerable profits from his practice in lands scattered round the north of England, including the estate at Redheugh (Co. Durham), the Middleton Hall (Westmld) estate, the advowson of Plumbland (Cumbld), and lands at Crookham (Northbld) which became the Pallinsburn estate.

Adam Askew entailed his landed property by means of trusts declared in his will. His three younger sons were all recipients of significant property; his eldest son, Dr. Anthony Askew (1722-74), a London physician and noted bibliophile, presumably received Storrs Hall under a previous entail. The second son, Rev. Adam Askew (1724-91) received Middleton Hall and the advowson of Plumbland, where he had been instituted as rector, and since he was unmarried and childless, provision was made for this property to pass to the descendants of his elder brother, Dr. Anthony Askew. Henry Askew (1730-96) received the Redheugh Estate and John Askew (1732-94) received the Northumberland property which became the Pallinsburn estate. Since Adam and Henry both died childless, their shares passed with Storrs Hall to the eldest son of Dr. Anthony Askew, another Adam Askew (1762-1844). He also died childless and left the property, according to the terms of the entail, to his brother Rev. Henry Askew (1767-1852), rector of Greystoke in Cumberland. 

Conishead Priory in the late 19th century

Henry purchased a small property on the edge of Ullswater in the Lake District where he built a new seat, Glenridding Hall, in about 1810. He later made over Storrs Hall in his lifetime to his son, Henry William Askew (1808-90), who sold it in 1848 and in 1850 bought the half-finished Conishead Priory from the bankrupt Col. Bradyll; he completed the building over the next few years (an account of Conishead is reserved for a future post on the Bradyll family). In 1854 he sold his father's house at Glenridding, which was probably surplus to his requirements, and in 1874, for reasons which are unclear, he sold Conishead Priory too and moved south to Burwood Park, a Georgian house near London which could hardly have been a greater contrast to his previous residence! Burwood was left not to his son, with whom there may have been a rift, but to his three spinster daughters, who lived there 'as virtual recluses' until they died. The youngest of them died in 1926, and the estate seems to have been sold for development the following year.

From 1852, Henry William Askew. as life-tenant of Redheugh, joined with his trustees to undertake some piecemeal disposal of parcels of the estate. When his son, Henry Hugh Askew (1847-1902) came of age in 1868 they took the opportunity to disentail the Redheugh estate in order to facilitate the disposal of the remainder. The rights to mine coal and fireclay were reserved in land sales and leased out from 1871 to the proprietors of Redheugh Colliery, who mined successfully until 1928, paying the Askews a share of the profits throughout that time.


View of Newcastle from the grounds of Redheugh Hall, 1836



The youngest son of Dr. Adam Askew (1696-1773) was John Askew (1732-94), who received from his father at the time of his marriage a number of estates in Northumberland, centred on Crookham. At some point in the next few years he built a new country house on this property, which he named Pallinsburn. By the early 19th century this had acquired Moorish-influenced finials, which may indeed have been part of the original design, although this seems unlikely. His eldest son and heir, George Adam Askew (1771-1838) continued to add to the estate but had no children, and the estate passed in fairly rapid succession to his brothers, Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Askew (1775-1847), kt., and the lawyer Richard Craster Askew (1778-1851), before passing to the son of yet another brother, Watson Askew (1834-1906), who came of age in 1855 and married the following year. His wife, the Hon. Sarah Robertson, was the daughter of David Robertson, 1st Baron Marjoribanks of Ladykirk in Berwickshire, and in 1889, on the death of her mother, they inherited that estate in addition to Pallinsburn and took the additional surname of Robertson. Ladykirk became their principal home.

Another of the properties which John Askew (1732-94) held was an estate at Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish border, which he left to his widow, Bridget Askew (d. 1823). Either she or her son George Adam Askew built a new house called Castle Hills on this property to function as a dower house to Pallinsburn, and during the 19th century it was used by various members of the family at different times. Watson Askew (1834-1906) inherited it from an uncle in 1868. At his death, Watson left Pallinsburn and Castle Hills to his eldest son, David Hugh Watson Askew (1868-1932), who was a bachelor barrister. He made his home at Castle Hills and sold Pallinsburn in 1912. Ladykirk belonged to the Hon. Sarah Askew until she died in 1929, when it was left to her second son, William Haggerston Askew (1868-1942), who also took the name Askew-Robertson. He had made a career as a stockbroker in London, but in 1922 he and his partners disbanded their firm and distribute its reserves among the employees. In 1932 he inherited Castle Hills from his brother and moved there, making over Ladykirk to his only son, Major John Marjoribanks Eskdale Askew (1908-96), who sadly demolished the Georgian house and replaced it with a much smaller one, built in the former walled garden, in 1965-66. When he inherited Castle Hills during the Second World War he leased it to a local charity as a maternity home, a purpose it served until 1984, when it was sold. The Ladykirk estate passed to his son, Henry John Askew (b. 1940), who is the present owner.


Redheugh House, Gateshead, Co. Durham


Redheugh House: an engraving of 1829 shows the house when it was leased to William Cuthbert.

The Redheugh estate was held of the Bishop of Durham from the 13th century by the Redheugh family. It passed to the Whites, then to the Liddells in 1619 and in 1748 it was bought by Adam Askew for his son Henry. 
Redheugh House as shown on the OS 6" map surveyed in 1856.
It was a five bay, two-storey late 17th century house, enlarged and refronted in the mid 18th century, when gabled wings with Venetian windows on the ground floor were added either side of the original house. The wings had five bay two-storey return elevations. A pedimented porch was also added and the interior was redecorated: the fine drawing room doorcase of c.1760, with a richly carved cornice supported on consoles, was illustrated in The Architect in 1912. 


Redheugh was one of several large landed properties in Gateshead which survived as gentlemen's residences surrounded by gardens and agricultural land until the development of industry and housing in the area in the mid-19th century. The house was let from the 1820s but the estate remained in the Askews' hands until it was gradually broken up by sales for building development from the 1870s onwards. 


Redheugh Hall in 1900, when it was slipping into dereliction.

The house stood empty in the late 19th century and gradually became derelict. In 1912 it was being used as a storehouse, with hay held in the 18th century drawing room. Then it was sold to the Redheugh Colliery Company. A fire in 1920 left the Hall roofless. The ruins were demolished in 1936 by the International Voluntary Service for Peace.

Descent: sold 1748 to Adam Askew MD (1696- 1773); to son, Henry Askew (1730-96); to nephew, Adam Askew (1757-1844), who leased the house before 1829 to William Cuthbert, a Newcastle glassmaker; to brother, Rev. Henry Askew (1767-1852); to son, Henry William Askew (1808-90), who dispersed the estate while retaining the mineral rights; sold to Redheugh Colliery Company; burned 1920 and demolished 1936.


Glenridding House, Cumberland



The head of Ullswater, with Glenridding House in the foreground, by Thomas Sunderland, c.1820

Glenridding House, c.1900

A house on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District, built between 1807 and 1814 for Rev. Henry Askew, rector of Greystoke. It is a square two-storey villa, now painted pink, with a low pyramidal roof, three broadly spaced floor-length windows on each floor on each side and two canted bays facing the lake; the back and side are encircled by a pretty iron trellis veranda and balcony, and a lower service wing is attached to the fourth side. At the back of the service wing there was originally a three-storey tower with a pointy roof which features prominently in an early drawing of the view over the lake from the hillside above the house by Thomas Sunderland and which was still there in 1900, but which has gone now. 


Glenridding House from Lake Ullswater.  The two bays on the right represent a modern extension, replacing part of the service range. Image: Glenridding House

The service wing has indeed been partly rebuilt to provide extra accommodation in the house. In 1834 the house was described as a "chaste and elegant mansion" with walks and pleasure grounds running down to the lake, where Askew kept a sloop for pleasure cruises. When William Henry Askew sold in 1854 it had three reception rooms (including a 40-foot drawing room), eight bedrooms and four dressing rooms, in addition to the service accommodation, and was accompanied by some 35 acres of grounds along the lakeside. Most of the grounds were sold off for further building, so that in 1860 it was sold with five acres and in 1881 with two acres. Following the 1860 sale it became a guest house for tourists visiting the Lake District, and Charles Darwin stayed here among many others. It still offers bed & breakfast accommodation and is also a wedding venue.

Descent: built 1807x1814 for Rev. Henry Askew (1767-1852); to son, Henry William Askew (1808-90), who sold 1854... sold 1860 to Robert Bownass; sold 1881...Mrs. Dalton (fl. 1891-92); sold to Ullswater Hotel...bought c.2000 and restored by the present owners.


Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey


The estate, at one time in the possession of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was sold by the president and fellows to John Carleton, from whom it was bought by King Henry VIII in 1540. The King ordered it to be made into a deer park for use in association with his palace at Oatlands, but it was later granted away from the Crown. It changed hands frequently in the 16th and 17th century until it was bought in 1720 by John Latton. Nothing is known of the house which he had here, but his arms used to be in a panel of painted glass preserved in the successor building. Latton expanded the estate to some 360 acres and sold it in 1739 to Sir John Frederick, 1st bt. 


Burwood Park: entrance front in 1823. Watercolour by John Hassell. Image: Surrey History Centre 4348/4/30/4
Burwood Park: a recent aerial view.

In about 1800 Sir John Frederick (1750-1825), 5th bt., built a large new house in the park. This had a severely plain east-facing seven bay garden front of two and a half storeys, with a central pediment, set at right-angles to a wing forming an entrance front of three widely-spaced bays. At the far end of the house another wing of similar dimensions had six windows on each floor and connected to a large service block. The interior was similarly plain, with simple cornices, reeded doorcases, and a staircase with an elegant and delicate wrought iron balustrade.

Burwood Park: entrance hall, 1955. Image: Old Burwoodian Association

Burwood Park: staircase hall in 1955. Image: Old Burwoodian Association

After Sir Richard Frederick, 6th bt., died in 1873 the house was sold to Henry William Askew, whose three spinster daughters lived here as virtual recluses. When the last of them died in 1926 the estate was sold to Lord Iveagh (d. 1927) for development. A few houses had been built by the late 1920s, but development began in earnest in 1934, when the Hon. Rupert Guinness, who became the first chairman of the Burhill Estates Co., divided most of the park into large plots and established a minimum value for the houses to be built on each. The roads the estate company laid out were named after the Guinness family's estates in Suffolk. 

The Georgian mansion of Burwood Park was converted into a girls' school by 1934, but this closed during the Second World War. In 1955 the school reopened as a Secondary Technical School for deaf boys and girls, and a new sixth form college followed in 1975. The School was sponsored by the Guinness family, but closed in 1996 and in 1999, Octagon Developments were commissioned to re-convert the house into a dwelling and to build seven further individual houses in the grounds.


Descent: sold 1720 to John Latton; sold 1739 to Sir John Frederick (1678-1755), 1st bt.; to son, Sir John Frederick (1728-57), 2nd bt.; to brother, Sir Thomas Frederick (1731-70), 3rd bt.; to cousin, Sir John Frederick (1708-83), 4th bt.; to son, Sir John Frederick (1750-1825), 5th bt.; to first cousin once removed, Sir Richard Frederick (1780-1873), 6th bt.; sold c.1873 to Henry William Askew (1808-90); to daughters, Charlotte Elizabeth Askew (1836-1910), Emily Mary Askew (1837-1909) and Frances Louisa Askew (1845-1926); sold after the latter's death to Edward Guinness (1847-1927), 1st Earl of Iveagh; to son, Hon. Rupert Guinness, who established Burhill Estates Co. to develop the estate.



Pallinsburn House, Ford, Northumberland


Pallinsburn House: the 18th century house in about 1900, from an old postcard.

A house that has been much altered over the centuries, and not usually to its advantage. In the later 18th century it had a three-storey three-bay centre with a canted central bay, attached by single-storey links to slightly taller pavilions with Venetian windows. By the early 19th century, every angle and junction of this facade was marked by high, thin, octagonal columns with pagoda tops, like minarets on a mosque. Later in 19th century the single-storey links were raised to three storeys and become the highest elements in the facade.  


Pallinsburn: the south front of the house after the removal of the top floor c.1933, from an old postcard

In 1912 the house was sold to Charles Mitchell. He remodelled the house in Jacobean style and then, about 1933, removed the top storey and gave the house a flat concrete roof. Of the original appearance of the house all that can now been seen on the south front is some of the original brickwork (some of it said to have come from Flanders), the canted central bay, and the lower half of one of the 'minarets'. The ground-floor window to the right retains the tripartite arrangement of the original Venetian window, but has been made Jacobean like everything else. On the north side, the two projecting wings have kept their 19th century appearance.


Pallinsburn: the north-facing entrance front in 2007. Image: Jon Whelan. Some rights reserved.

Inside, Mitchell created some beautiful rooms, especially the dining room, with a barrel-vaulted Tudor-style plaster ceiling of intersecting ribs with reliefs of wild animals. The same room has reused Jacobean panelling with Ionic pilasters and a frieze with strapwork. The Oak Room has reused linenfold panelling and panels with medallion heads. The decoration of the hall, with its screen of Tuscan columns with acanthus necking, may be genuine late 18th century work in situ. There is much similar decoration in the other rooms.

During preparations for the sale of the estate in 2005, the so-called Codex Rootstein-Hopkins by Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, a volume of 44 highly finished, accurately measured architectural drawings in pen and ink depicting sixteen ancient buildings in Rome and the temples of Hercules and Castor and Pollux at Cori, was found in the library. It is the most important evidence of Sangallo's ambitious and celebrated project to document and recreate the threatened monuments of ancient Rome on paper, proposed to Pope Leo X in c.1515-1519. It was first recorded in 1760 by the German scholar of classical antiquity Johann Winckelmann and had belonged to Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691-1757). It is thought to have been acquired by the bibliophile Anthony Askew in the mid 18th century and not to have been sold with his other manuscripts in the 1780s. It remained in the Library when many of the contents of the house were sold with the building in 1912.

Descent: Estate assembled by Adam Askew MD (d. 1773) and given 1770 to his fourth son, John Askew (1732-94); to son, George Adam Askew (1771-1838); to brother, Maj-Gen. Sir Henry Askew (1775-1847); to brother, Richard Craster Askew (1778-1851); to nephew, Watson Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1834-1906); to son, David Hugh Watson Askew (1863-1932), who sold 1912 to Charles Mitchell (c.1883-1959); to son, Col. Charles Hamilton Mitchell (c.1916-64); to widow, Jane (d. 2008), later wife of Toby Lyell (d. 2003); sold 2005 to George Nelson Farr (fl. 2015)


Ladykirk, Berwickshire


The Robertson family acquired the Ladykirk estate in c.1737-39 and nothing is known about the house that then stood on it. It was probably not all that old for Roger Robertson (d. 1782), a noted antiquarian, devoted himself to landscaping the grounds rather than remodelling the house. In 1753, he commissioned a land surveyor to plot out “inclosures” and to find the situation for a new house and avenue. In 1757 and 1758, he met a Mr Robinson, surveyor, who sketched out ideas and plans for a garden, pleasure grounds, a 'Green Walk' and a bowling green with ornamental gate for the front of the house. This was presumably the well known designer Robert Robinson, who was working on a scheme for the nearby Paxton House at about the same time. An intensive period of activity followed, during which there were schemes across the whole estate for planting, trenching, levelling, manuring, liming, gravelling roads and digging sunken ditches; the walled garden was extended in 1758; a new nursery ground was laid out to accommodate nearly 50,000 young trees, hedges and shrubs (1757-60); and plantations were planted across the estate (1761, 1766, 1780). Maps in 1771 and 1779 indicate a house with a designed landscape, including clumps of trees, and circular and oval plantations, the remnants of some of which can still be seen today.

Roger Robertson died in 1782. His son, William Robertson (c.1763-1830) inherited and became renowned for his pursuit of agricultural improvement and excellence. With much of the groundwork complete at Ladykirk, spending was channelled into the building of a new mansion house 
in 1797-99 by William Elliot of Kelso, who copied the design of the front elevation of William Chambers' Dundas House in Edinburgh, of 1771. It was a seven-by-three bay house of two and a half storeys, with a pedimented three-bay breakfront on the main elevations. The one-and-a-half storey pavilions may also have been built at this time. The house was altered and enlarged by William Burn and David Bryce in 1843-45 for Daniel Robertson: they presumably added the extensions to the wings, one of which included a massive conservatory, the porte-cochere on the entrance front, and the balustraded staircase across the area on the garden side.


Ladykirk House: the north front as extended by Burn and Bryce in 1843-45.


Ladykirk House: south front



The mansion is said to have been damaged by flooding in the early 20th century and was 'gradually demolished' between the late 1930s and 1966, when it was replaced by the present house, built in the walled garden and designed by J.D. Cairns & Ford in 1965-66 for Major J. Askew. This has Lorimer-style bellcast gables in Dutch colonial style and a long staircase window. Some fittings were reused from the previous house, including the library woodwork.


Ladykirk House: the house of 1965-66. Image: Cathietinn. Some rights reserved.



The main survival from the previous mansion is the classical stable block and riding school, designed on a vast scale in 1845 by George Tattersall (d. 1849), a specialist in equestrian architecture, and built at a cost of £11,836 by the mid 1850s. It seems to have been completed after Tattersall's death by H.S. Ridley. The building is a U-shaped complex of two-storey stables with a large rectangular riding school attached to the east. The stables have a thirteen-bay centre with nine-bay projecting wings to the south, ending in open-pedimented gabled facades. The tall archway in the middle of the central block is crowned by a domed octagon with arched openings; the dome house a water tank for the house. The recently restored riding school is equally impressive in both its scale and architectural presence; although it is essentially a large two-storey shed with overhanging eaves, the walls are decorated with blind arches on the ground floor containing glazed fanlights and by circular windows on the first floor. Inside, it has a queen-post roof and a small west gallery.


Ladykirk House: stables and riding school

Ladykirk House: the riding school

Further survivals from the old house are the Lion Gateway and Porter's Lodge designed by William Elliot in 1799 and based on Adam's entrance screen for Syon House (Middx), even down to the Coade stone Percy lion above the central high arch. This is linked by five-bay colonnades to single-storey hipped-roof lodges, each with a niche on its principal front. The arch has decorative pilasters, and acanthus-leaf capitals which are repeated on the colonnades. The East Lodge is of 1875, with gatepiers and gates moved here c.1990, and the classical North Lodge is a fairly late work by John Dobson of Newcastle, 1850. A new lake was created in the park in the 1990s.

Descent: Roger Robertson (d. 1782); to son, William Robertson (c.1763-1830); to granddaughter, Marianne-Sarah (née Haggeston), wife of David Marjoribanks (later Robertson) (1797-1873), 1st Baron Marjoribanks; to daughter, Sarah (d. 1929), wife of Watson Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1834-1906); to son, David Hugh Watson Askew (1863-1932); to brother, William Haggerston Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1868-1942); to son, Maj. John Marjoribanks Eskdale Askew (1908-96); to son, Henry John Askew (b. 1940).


Castle Hills, Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland


Castle Hills House: the main front overlooking the River Tweed.


Castle Hills House: the side elevation  and the view downriver towards Berwick
An early 19th century castellated house with a main front consisting of a three-bay centre of two storeys and an attic with dormers, and wings in the form of castellated square turrets. It was built as a dower house for the Pallinsburn estate, either by John Askew's widow, Bridget (d. 1823), who was left the property in 1794, or by their son, George Adam Askew (1771-1838). The centre has an impressive mid to late 19th century two-storey castellated verandah, no doubt placed to enjoy the fine views the house affords down the River Tweed towards Berwick. The towers are balanced but not symmetrical: the left-hand tower has four storeys to the three in the right-hand tower. The interior details, with moulded cornices and reeded doorcases and window surrounds, suggest the house may date from the 1820s rather than earlier, but the family had greater need of a dower house earlier in the century, so the date remains obscure.


Castle Hills House: the first floor drawing room

Descent: John Askew (1732-94); to widow, Bridget Askew (d. 1823), who perhaps built the house c.1810; to son, for George Adam Askew (1771-1838); to brother, Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Askew, kt. (1775-1847); to brother, Hugh Bertram Askew (1783-1868); to nephew, Watson Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1834-1906); to son, David Hugh Watson Askew (1863-1932); to brother, William Haggerston Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1868-1942); to son, Maj. John Marjoribanks Eskdale Askew (1908-96) who leased it for use as Berwick-on-Tweed Maternity Hospital, 1943-84...sold 2012.


Askew family of Redheugh House


Askew, Anthony (1670-c.1740), of Kendal and Storrs Hall. 
Second son of John Askew (1636-86) of Kirkby-in-Furness (Lancs) and his wife Margaret Cosin, baptised at Kendal, 10 July 1670. Doctor of medicine at Kendal (Westmld). JP and DL for Westmorland. He married, 11 September 1694 at Lancaster (Lancs), Anne, only daughter and heiress of Adam Storrs (1629-1702), yeoman, of Storrs Hall (Lancs) and widow of Charles Cawson (d. 1693), and had issue:
(1) Margaret Askew (b. 1695), baptised 27 August 1695 at Kendal;
(2) Adam Askew (1696-1773) (q.v.);
(3) Anthony Askew (1699-1727) of Wakefield (Yorks WR), baptised 4 July 1699; married, 10 July 1722 at Silkstone (Yorks WR), Dorothea Hopkinson of Wakefield, and had issue one son and two daughters; buried at Wakefield, 20 December 1727.
He inherited Storrs Hall, Arkholme (Lancs) in right of his wife in 1701/2.
His will was proved 18 June 1740. His wife's date of death has not been established.

Askew, Adam (1696-1773). Son of Anthony Askew MD, and his wife Anne, daughter of Adam Storrs and widow of Charles Cawson, 'born in a house in the market place at Kendal' and baptised there, 4 November 1696. Educated at Kendal and St. John's College, Cambridge (admitted 1714; MB 1720). Physician; he moved from Kendal (Westmld) to take up practice at Newcastle-on-Tyne in c.1723, and rapidly built an extensive and highly profitable practice. He invested the proceeds of his career in purchases of land and other property for the benefit of his children. He married, 5 June 1721 at Burton-in-Kendal (Westmld), Anne (c.1697-1778), younger daughter of Richard Crackenthorpe of Newbiggen (Westmld) and had issue:
(1) Anthony Askew (1722-74) (q.v.);
(2) Rev. Adam Askew (1724-91), baptised at St John, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 26 March 1724; educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1742/3; BA 1746; MA 1750); ordained deacon, 1748; curate of Elsdon (Northbld), 1748; rector of Bolton (Cumbld), 1752-60; domestic chaplain to Lady Tankerville, 1767; rector of Plumbland (Cumbld), 1760-87 (which he appears to have served by curate); he inherited the Middleton Hall (Westmld) estate from his father but lived in St. Marylebone (Middx) and latterly at Walthamstow (Essex); died unmarried, 23 February 1791 and was buried at Walthamstow, 2 March 1791; administration of his goods with will annexed was granted to his brother, John, 14 March 1791;
(3) Henry Askew (1730-96) of Redheugh Hall (Durham), baptised 21 April 1730 at St John, Newcastle-on-Tyne; educated at Newcastle Free School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (admitted 1749/50; MB 1755); practised briefly as a physician at Newcastle-on-Tyne; his father settled the Redheugh estate on him in 1753; appointed guardian of his eldest brother's children at the latter's death in 1774; married, 13 April 1758 at Whitby (Yorks NR), Dorothy (c.1741-92), daughter of Adam Boultby of Whitby (Yorks NR) but had no issue; buried at St John, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 26 March 1796; will proved 6 April 1796;
(4) John Askew (1732-94) [for whom see below, under Askew of Pallinsburn and Ladykirk];
(5) Deborah Askew (1735-c.1754), baptised 27 May 1735; died unmarried, aged 19;
(6) Anne Askew (c.1738-1814) of Whickham (Durham); she appears to have succeeded to her mother's jointure property at Whickham in 1778; died unmarried, aged 76, and was buried at St John, Hampstead (Middx), 10 June 1814.
He inherited Storrs Hall, Arkholme from his father but never lived there. He purchased various properties in the north-east of England as investments, including Redheugh Hall, which he gave to his third son in 1753; and in 1763 property at Crookham (Northbld) which became the Pallinsburn estate. He also purchased Middleton Hall (Westmld) and the advowson of Plumbland (Cumbld) for his second son, and lands at Ellington and Linton (Northbld).
He was buried at Newcastle, 19 January 1773; his will was proved 3 June 1775. His widow died 4 November 1778 and was buried at St John, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 8 November 1778.


Anthony Askew (1722-74)
Askew, Anthony (1722-74). 
Eldest son of Adam Askew (1696-1773) and his wife Anne, daughter of Richard Crackenthorpe of Newbiggen (Westmld), born at Kendal and baptised there 7 May 1722. Educated at Sedbergh, Newcastle Free School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (matriculated 1741; MB 1745; MD 1750) and at the University of Leiden (1745-46) before travelling
to Hungary, Athens, Constantinople, Italy, and other countries. He was a passionate classicist and during his time abroad he purchased a large number of books and manuscripts that formed the basis of his outstanding library,  the 'Bibliotheca Askeviana', that was crammed ‘from cellar to garret’ into his house in Queen Square, London; the collection, amounting to some 7,000 books, was dispersed at auction in February and March 1775; the manuscripts were sold separately in 1785 except, apparently, the Codex Rootstein-Hopkins (see above). He practised medicine in London from c.1749 and was appointed physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, from 1754; and later to Christ's Hospital. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1749 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1753 (serving as Censor, 1756, 1761, 1764, 1766-67, Registrar, 1767-74, and Harveian Orator, 1758). He married 1st, 15 November 1751 at Hartburn (Northbld), Margaret, daughter of Cuthbert Swinburn of Longwitton and The Westgate (Northbld) and 2nd, Elizabeth (1734-73), younger daughter of Robert Holford, Master in Chancery, and had issue:
(2.1) Adam Askew (1757-1844) (q.v.);
(2.2) Anthony Linacre Askew (1759-1818), baptised 15 March 1759 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; educated at Eton, Lincolns Inn (admitted 1777) and King's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1779; BA 1783; MA 1788); Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, 1781-96; he inherited the Middleton Hall (Westmld) estate from an uncle in 1791 or 1796; died unmarried, 12 June and was buried at St John, Hampstead (Middx), 18 June 1818;
(2.3) Anne Elizabeth Askew (1760-1844), baptised at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London, 24 April 1760; married, 19 December 1795 at Gateshead (Durham), her cousin, George Adam Askew (1771-1838) (q.v.) of Pallinsburn, but had no issue; died in Cheltenham (Glos), 15 February and was buried there, 22 February 1844;
(2.4) John Askew (fl. 1795); living in 1795 when he was mentioned in the will of his uncle Henry Askew;
(2.5) Sarah Askew (c.1763-c.1809); born about 1763; died unmarried about 1809;
(2.6) Deborah Askew (1764-1848), baptised 4 April 1764 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; married, 29 June 1813 at St George, Hanover Square, London, as his second wife, Sir Lucas Pepys MD (1742-1830), 1st bt., physician, but had no issue; died 21 June and was buried at Cheltenham (Glos), 28 June 1848; her will was proved 7 August 1848;
(2.7) Rev. Henry Askew (1767-1852) (q.v.);
(2.8) Amy Askew (1768-1848), born 22 June and baptised 20 July 1768 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; married, 10 February 1795 at St. Marylebone (Middx), Rev. John Washington of Winchester and had issue four sons and four daughters; died at Eastbourne, 16 November 1848; will proved 14 December 1848;
(2.9) Elizabeth Askew (b. 1769), baptised 11 August 1769 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; married, 31 May 1796 at Gateshead (Durham), Henry Percy Pulleine (1770-1833) of Carlton Hall (Yorks) and had issue three sons and eight daughters; as a widow lived at Crakehall, Bedale (Yorks); died 24 April 1839; will proved 5 August 1839;
(2.10) Maj. Richard Askew (c.1770-1828); educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (admitted 1792); an officer in 27th Foot (Capt., 1796; Major after 1805) and Loyal Britons Volunteers (Lt., 1805); Paymaster of a Recruiting District, 1809; died in London and was buried at St. John, Hampstead, 26 December 1828;
(2.11) Thomas Askew (1771-1858), baptised 13 September 1771 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; Major in New Romney Light Dragoons and Royal Scots Greys; lived at Down House (Kent) in 1804 but moved to Cheltenham (Glos) by 1827; married, 12 April 1796, Lucy Elizabeth (1775-1861), daughter of Robert Cary of Hampstead (Middx) and had issue one son and one daughter; died at Cheltenham (Glos), 14 January and was buried there, 21 January 1858; will proved 18 February 1858 (effects under £40,000);
(2.12) Mary Askew (1772-86), baptised 2 October 1772 at St. George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London; died young, 9 January 1786 and was buried at Hampstead with her father.
He lived in a house in Queen Square, London, and also had a home at Hampstead (Middx). He inherited Storrs Hall, Arkholme from his father in 1773 and an interest in one of the manors of Midgham (Berks) through his mother in 1778.
He died in Hampstead, 27 February 1774 and was buried at St John's, Hampstead; his will was proved 24 March 1774. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife died on 2 August 1773 and was commemorated by a monument at Hammersmith (Middx).

Askew, Adam (1757-1844) of Redheugh Hall. 
Eldest son of Anthony Askew (1722-74) and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Holford, born 23 December 1757 and baptised at St Anne, Soho, London, 19 January 1758. Educated at Harrow and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (admitted 1775). High Sheriff of Co. Durham, 1809. He was a regular subscriber to philanthropic causes in London, and donated £100 towards the establishment of Kings College, London. He married 1st, 7 March 1782 at St Marylebone (Middx), Amy Ann (d. 1831), daughter of Robert Cary of London, and 2nd, 20 October 1831 at All Souls, Langham Place, St Marylebone (Middx), Elizabeth (1777-1856), sixth daughter of Rev. Sir Richard Rycroft, 1st bt., but had no issue.
He inherited Storrs Hall, Arkholme from his father in 1773, Middleton Hall from his uncle Adam Askew, and Redheugh Hall from his uncle Henry Askew, but lived at 7 Wimpole St., London. Storrs Hall was let by the 1790s to tenants who rebuilt it, and Redheugh was let by the 1820s and probably earlier.
He died 21 November 1844 and was buried at Kensal Green (Middx), although he was commemorated by a mural tablet in Gateshead church (Durham); his will was proved 18 December 1844. His first wife was buried at Great Stanmore (Middx), 11 January 1831. His widow died 13 February 1856; her will was proved 23 February 1856.

Askew, Rev. Henry (1767-1852) of Redheugh Hall. 
Fourth son of Anthony Askew (1722-74) and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Holford, baptised 8 July 1767 at St George the Martyr, Queen Sq., London. Educated at Eton and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (matriculated 1786; BA 1790; MA 1799). Ordained deacon, 1790, and priest, 1794; rector of Greystoke (Cumbld), 1798-1852. 
While on a visit to Corby Castle (Cumbld), he is said to have seen the famous family ghost, which scared him so much that he left hurriedly the next morning in a state of great agitation, only explaining the reason to his host some time afterwards. He married, 29 July 1799 at Ulverston (Lancs), Anne (1776-1851), youngest daughter of the amateur artist, Col. Thomas Sunderland of Littlecroft, Ulverston, and had issue:
(1) Anne Elizabeth Askew (1800-45), born 17 July and baptised at Greystoke, 18 July 1800; married, 27 April 1831 at Greystoke, as his second wife, John Dalrymple Murray (1800-63) of Murraythwaite (Dumfriess.) and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 14 September 1845;
(2) Eleanora Askew (b. 1801; fl. 1863), born 4 August and baptised at Greystoke, 6 August 1801; married, 3 September 1833 at Greystoke, Rear-Admiral John Washington FRS (1800-63), Hydrographer to the Navy, and had issue three sons and two daughters; living in 1863.
(3) Henry William Askew (1808-90) (q.v.).
He inherited Redheugh Hall and Storrs Hall, Arkholme from his brother Adam but never lived at either; the houses were let. He built Glenridding House between 1807 and 1814.
He died 25 December 1852. His wife died 23 November 1851.

Askew, Henry William (1808-90). 
Only son of Rev. Henry Askew (d. 1850) and his wife Anne, daughter of Col. Thomas Sunderland of Littlecroft, Ulverston (Lancs), baptised at Greystoke (Cumbld), 13 June 1808. Educated at Harrow and Emanuel College, Cambridge (admitted 1826; BA 1832). JP for Cumberland, Lancashire and Argyllshire. He married, 11 February 1832 at Alnwick (Northbld), Lucy (1811-87), third daughter of Rt. Rev. & Hon. Hugh Percy DD, Bishop of Carlisle, and had issue:
(1) Charlotte Elizabeth Askew (1836-1910), baptised at Greystoke (Cumbld), 3 April 1836; lived with her sisters 'as virtual recluses' at Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames (Surrey); died unmarried, 21 February 1910; will proved 7 June 1910 (estate £35,299);
(2) Emily Mary Askew (1837-1909), baptised at Patterdale (Westmld), 25 September 1837; lived with her sisters at Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames (Surrey); died unmarried, 30 April 1909; will proved 30 June 1909 (estate £23,779);
(3) Frances Louisa Askew (1845-1926), baptised at Greystoke (Cumbld), 12 May 1845; lived with her sisters at Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames (Surrey); died unmarried, 16 May and was buried at Walton-on-Thames (Surrey), 20 May 1926; will proved 18 August 1926 and 26 March 1927 (estate £89,300);
(4) Henry Hugh Askew (1847-1902) of Holly Cross House, Wargrave (Berks), born in Edinburgh, 1847; naval cadet, 1861; an officer in 7th Dragoon Guards (Cornet, 1868; retired 1869); married, 12 August 1868 at All Saints, St. John's Wood (Middx), Mary Edith Montague (c.1848-93), daughter of Rev. Octavius Freire Owen, and had issue four daughters; died 14 November 1902; will proved 12 December 1902 (estate £2,799);
(5) Rev. Edmund Adam Askew (1849-1901), born 25 May 1849 and baptised at Patterdale, 14 June 1849; educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1868; BA 1873; MA 1892); ordained deacon, 1873 and priest, 1874; curate of Kirk Langley (Derbys), 1873-75; rector of Greystoke (Cumbld), 1875-1901; Proctor in Convocation, Archdeaconry of Carlisle, 1898-1901; married, 14 September 1875 at Kirk Langley (Derbys), Mary Penelope Feilden, and had issue two sons and five daughters; died 26 December 1901 and was buried at Greystoke; will proved 20 February 1902 (estate £12,836).
He appears to have been given Storrs Hall, Arkholme before his father's death and sold it in 1848. He inherited Redheugh Hall from his father in 1850 but never lived there. After 1870 the estate was dispersed in small land sales. When first married he seems to have lived at Glenridding House (Cumbld), which he inherited from his father in 1852 but sold in 1854. He bought Conishead Priory (Lancs) in 1850 and completed the building of the house to the design of George Webster and lived there until 1874, when he sold it and bought Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames (Surrey). The Burwood estate was sold for redevelopment after the death of his youngest daughter in 1926.
He died at Burwood Park, 22 November, and was buried at Walton-on-Thames (Surrey), 27 November 1890; his will was proved 13 August 1891 (estate £68,600). His wife was buried at Walton-on-Thames, 1 February 1887.


Askew family of Pallinsburn and Ladykirk


Askew, John (1732-94) of Pallinsburn. 
Fourth son of Adam Askew (1696-1773) of Newcastle-on-Tyne and his wife Anne, daughter of Richard Crackenthorpe of Newbiggen (Westmld), born 23 July 1732. High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1776. He married, 24 September 1770, Bridget (d. 1823), daughter and heir of Thomas Watson of Berwick-on-Tweed and Goswick (Northumbld) and had issue:
(1) George Adam Askew (1771-1838) (q.v.);
(2) Elizabeth Anne Askew (1772-1857), baptised 11 October 1772; died 20 April and was buried on Lindisfarne, 29 April 1857;
(3) Rev. John Watson Askew (1773-1810), baptised at Ford (Northbld), 26 December 1773; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1793; BA 1796; MA 1799; Fellow 1799); ordained deacon, 1797; curate of Broadmayne and West Knighton (Dorset), 1798; died unmarried, 17 November 1810; his will was proved at Durham in 1811;
(4) Sir Henry Askew (1775-1847), kt. (q.v.);
(5) William Askew (1776-1805), baptised 1 July 1776; Lieutenant in the Royal Navy; unmarried and without issue; killed by an accident on board ship, November 1805;
(6) Isabella Askew (1777-1864), baptised 3 September 1777; died 12 February 1864 and was buried on Lindisfarne; will proved 8 April 1864 (effects under £16,000);
(7) Richard Craster Askew (1778-1851) (q.v.);
(8) Christopher Crackenthorpe Askew (1782-1848) (q.v.);
(9) Hugh Bertram Askew (1783-1868) of Castle Hills, Berwick-on-Tweed, baptised 7 December 1783; an officer in the East India Co. naval service; died 10 February 1868 and buried on Lindisfarne; will proved 17 March 1868 (effects under £90,000).
His father settled lands at Crookham which became the Pallinsburn estate on him at the time of his marriage in 1770, and he built the house there. By his will he left the castle at Berwick, the Mills, and the Castle Hills estate to his widow for life.
He died 28 October 1794 and was buried on Lindisfarne; his will has not been traced. His widow died 30 June 1823; her will was proved 12 December 1823.

Askew, George Adam (1771-1838) of Pallinsburn. 
Eldest son of John Askew (1732-94) of Pallinsburn and his wife Bridget, daughter of Thomas Watson of Gostwick (Durham), born 19 July and baptised 15 August 1771. JP and DL for Northumberland; High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1800. Captain in the Glendale Gentlemen & Yeomanry Cavalry, c.1800. He married, 19 December 1795 at Gateshead (Durham), his cousin, Anne Elizabeth (1760-1844), daughter of Anthony Askew MD of London, but had no issue.
He inherited Pallinsburn from his father in 1794 and continued to add to the estate. At his death it passed to his widow for a year and then to his brother, Sir Henry Askew. He perhaps built Castle Hills House, Berwick as a dower house for his widowed mother.
He died 'after a protracted illness', 6 February 1838; his will was proved 10 May 1838. His widow died in Cheltenham, 15 February 1844, aged 83.

Askew, Lt-Gen. Sir Henry (1775-1847), kt., of Pallinsburn. 
Third son of John Askew (1732-94) of Pallinsburn and his wife Bridget, daughter of Thomas Watson of Gostwick (Durham), born 7 May and baptised 15 May 1775. An officer in the Grenadier Guards, 1793-1837 (Ensign, 1793; Lt., 1795; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1807; Col., 1814; Maj-Gen. 1821; Lt-Gen., 1837);  he served in the campaigns in Holland and Flanders in 1794-95, in Sicily and the Mediterranean, 1806-07, and at Walcheren, 1809; took part in the Peninsular War in 1812-14; and fought in the Waterloo Campaign, where he was wounded at the Battle of Quatre Bras, 1815. He was appointed CB and later knighted, 25 July 1821. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Pallinsburn from his elder brother in 1838. At his death it passed to his younger brother, Richard Craster Askew.
He died at Cologne (Germany), 25 June 1847 and was buried at Ford, 14 July 1847; his will was proved 5 November 1847.

Askew, Richard Craster (1778-1851) of Pallinsburn. 
Fifth son of John Askew (1732-94) of Pallinsburn and his wife Bridget, daughter of Thomas Watson of Gostwick (Durham), born 5 September and baptised 6 September 1778 at Ford (Northbld). Educated at Inner Temple (admitted 1803; called to bar 1807). Barrister-at-law; Recorder of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He married, 18 April 1843 at Edlingham (Northbld), Elizabeth (c.1788-1861), daughter of Thomas Davidson, clerk of the peace for Northumberland, but had no issue.
He inherited Pallinsburn from his elder brother in 1847. At his death it passed to his nephew, Watson Askew (later Askew-Robertson).
He died at Pallinsburn, 30 July 1851; his will was proved 30 January 1852. His widow died at Doxford House, Ellingham (Northbld), 6 May 1861; her will was proved 13 July 1861 (effects under £25,000).

Askew, Capt. Christopher Crackenthorpe (1782-1848). 
Sixth son of John Askew (1732-94) of Pallinsburn and his wife Bridget, daughter of Thomas Watson of Gostwick (Durham), born 24 May 1782. An officer in the Royal Navy (entered the Navy, 1798; Midshipman, 1799; Lt., 1805; Commander, 1811; retired as Capt., 1822); he was at the Battle of Copenhagen, 1801, and accompanied Lord Nelson in his pursuit of the French and Spanish fleets to the West Indies, 1805. JP for Hampshire. He married, 13 February 1828 at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Sarah (1804-86), daughter of Patrick Dickson of Berwick-on-Tweed, and had issue:
(1) Watson Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1834-1906) (q.v.);
(2) Christina Crackenthorpe Askew (1838-68), born 26 December 1838 and baptised 21 May 1839 at Farlington (Hants); married, 26 January 1865 at Ford (Northbld), Rev. William Chandos Pole (1833-95), rector of Radbourne (Derbys) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 23 March 1868; administration of her goods was granted 3 June 1868 (effects under £450).
He lived at Portsmouth (Hants) and later at Broadbush, Petersfield (Hants).
He died 6 December 1848; his will was proved 26 March 1849. His widow died 13 February 1886; her will was proved 8 March 1886 (effects £2,830).

Askew (later Askew-Robertson), Watson (1834-1906) of Pallinsburn and Ladykirk. 
Only son of Christopher Crackenthorpe Askew (1782-1848) and his wife Sarah, daughter of Patrick Dickson of Berwick-on-Tweed, born 6 August and baptised at St Mary, Portsea (Hants), 13 August 1834. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1852). JP and DL for Northumberland and Berwickshire; High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1862; Chairman of Northumberland Quarter Sessions, 1895-1905; a member (later Alderman) of Northumberland County Council, 1889-1903 (Vice-Chairman 1895-1903). Master of the Northumberland & Berwickshire Foxhounds. In 1892 he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Unionist in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He assumed, for himself and his wife alone, the additional surname and arms of Robertson by royal licence, 20 September 1890. He married, 20 August 1856 at Norham (Northbld), Hon. Sarah (c.1836-1929), daughter and co-heir of David Robertson, 1st Baron Marjoribanks, of Ladykirk (Berwicks.) and had issue:
(1) George Christopher Hugh Askew (1858-62), born 10 February 1858; died young, 15 February 1862;
(2) David Hugh Watson Askew (1863-1932) (q.v.);
(3) Bridget Watson Askew (1864-94), born in Edinburgh, 15 October 1864; married, 22 August 1894, Lt-Gen. Sir Raleigh Gilbert Egerton KCB KCIE (d. 1931), second son of Sir Robert Eyles Egerton KCSI CIE but had no issue; died in India, 20 November 1894; administration of goods granted 25 June 1895 (effects £474);
(4) Mary Marjoribanks Askew (1866-1947), born 1 June 1866; married, 6 February 1894 at Norham (Northbld), Sir James Bruce Wilkie (from 1913 Wilkie-Dalyell) (1867-1935), 9th bt., of Foulden (Berwicks.) and The Binns (West Lothian) and had issue one daughter; died 27 November 1947; will proved in Scotland and sealed in London, 16 February 1948;
(5) Isabel Sarah Askew (1867-1943), born 17 May 1867; married, 14 January 1903, Lt-Col. Rev. Preb. Robert Dixon Rosby Greene (c.1872-1961), vicar of Kington (Herefs.), son of Rev. Matthew Greene of Norham (Northbld) and had issue one son; died 10 July 1943; will proved 27 October 1943 (estate £306);
(6) William Haggerston Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1868-1942) (q.v.);
(7) John Bertram Askew (1869-1930), born 16 October 1869 in Edinburgh; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1888); writer and translator of some of the works of Karl Johann Kautsky, the Marxist philosopher; he published Pros and Cons, 1896, a compilation of views on both sides of topical political controversies, which went through several editions; he became a Marxist and was estranged from his family and separated from his first wife; he went to live in Germany, where he knew Friedrich Engels, although he later returned to London; Trotsky's life of Lenin mentions him as a London associate; he married 1st, 1 July 1893 at St Peter, Eaton Square, London, Freda alias Frederika Louisa (1868-1918), eldest daughter of Col. George Frederick Dallas, and had issue one daughter; and after a German court had ruled that this marriage had been dissolved he married 2nd, 24 April 1912 at Lichterfelde (Germany), Anna, daughter of Robart Wengels of Berlin; died 5 February 1929; after his death the validity of his second marriage was challenged in the British courts; will proved 6 May 1929 (estate £1,406);
(8) Charles Marjoribanks Askew (1871-1920); born in Edinburgh, 6 September 1871 (birth registered as Charles Watson Askew); died unmarried, 1920, probably abroad.
He was brought up at Broadbush, Petersfield (Hants). He inherited Pallinsburn from his uncle Richard in 1851 and came of age in 1855; he inherited Castle Hills from his uncle Hugh in 1868, and spent part of his time at Castle Hills as a young man but later lived at Pallinsburn. His wife inherited Ladykirk House in 1889 on the death of her mother and that became their principal home.
He died 20 November 1906; his will was proved 18 January 1907 (effects £144,524). His widow died 30 May 1929; her will was proved in Scotland and sealed in London, 13 August 1929.

Askew, David Hugh Watson (1863-1932) of Pallinsburn. 
Second, but eldest surviving son of Watson Askew-Robertson (1834-1906) and his wife Hon. Sarah, daughter of David Robertson, Lord Marjoribanks of Ladykirk (Berwicks), born in Edinburgh, 21 October 1863. Educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1882; BA 1885) and Inner Temple (admitted 1886; called to bar, 1888). Barrister-at-law on North-Eastern Circuit. JP for Berwickshire and Northumberland; Sheriff of Berwick, 1910-11; High Sheriff of Northumberland, 1912-13. A Conservative (Unionist) in politics. He had antiquarian and heraldic interests and his collections are now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. He was unmarried and without issue.
He lived in London until he inherited Pallinsburn and Castle Hills from his father in 1906, but he sold the estate in 1912 and lived at Castle Hills, Berwick-on-Tweed.
He died in Edinburgh, 6 March 1932; his will was proved 9 May and 29 October 1932 (estate £30,300).

Askew (later Askew-Robertson), William Haggerston (1868-1942). 
Third son of Watson Askew-Robertson (1834-1906) and his wife Hon. Sarah, daughter of David Robertson, Lord Marjoribanks of Ladykirk (Berwicks), born 4 October 1868. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1892). Partner in Gordon, Askew & Biddulph, stockbrokers, in London until about 1922. JP for Berwickshire and Northumberland. He assumed the additional name of Robertson, 1 November 1929. He was noted for his public benefactions which included the gift of Duddingston Loch to the city of Edinburgh as a nature reserve, and the gift of £10,000 to Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough for building model houses for working people in the 1920s. He married, 28 March 1903, Katherine Marjorie Strathearn (1881-1932), daughter of Hon. John Edward Gordon MP and had issue:
(1) Mary Marjoribanks Askew (1906-2001), born 16 December 1906; married 1st, 1 December 1926 (div. 1941), John Charles Blencowe Cookson (1904-87) of Meldon Park (Northbld) and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, 6 Sept. 1941, Lt-Col. Robert Macaulay Fanshawe (1904-74) of Stanton (Glos), second son of Col. Sir Edward Arthur Fanshawe KCB and had further issue one daughter; died February 2001;
(2) Maj. John Marjoribanks Eskdale Askew (1908-96) (q.v.).
He inherited Ladykirk from his mother in 1929 but made it over to his son. He inherited Castle Hills, Berwick-on-Tweed from his elder brother in 1932 and lived there latterly.
He died 4 March 1942; his will was proved 25 July 1942 (estate £210,986). His wife died 20 April 1932.

Askew, Maj. John Marjoribanks Eskdale (1908-96) 
of Ladykirk. Only son of William Haggerston Askew (later Askew-Robertson) (1868-1942) and his wife Katherine Marjorie Strathearn, daughter of Hon. John Edward Gorson MP, born 22 September 1908. Educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge. An officer in Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1932; re-employed 1939; Capt., 1940); Brigadier in Royal Company of Archers. Landowner and farmer. JP and DL for Berwickshire; Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Berwickshire, 1955. He married 1st, 4 October 1933 (div. 1966), Lady Susan Alice (1913-2010), fourth daughter of John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere, and 2nd, Jan-Mar 1967, Rona Margaret (c.1916-85), daughter of W. Ronald Murray and widow of Maj. Henry Redvers Trotter (1902-62) of Charterhall (Berwicks.), and had issue:
(1.1) Sarah Caroline Askew (b. 1936), born 1 June 1936; married, 30 June 1959, Charles Michael Henderson (b. 1937), 3rd Baron Faringdon, of Buscot Park (Berks) and Barnsley Park (Glos), and had issue three sons and one daughter;
(1.2) Henry John Askew (b. 1940) (q.v.).
He received Ladykirk as a gift from his father in the early 1930s but demolished the house in stages between 1938 and 1966 and replaced it with a much smaller one built in the walled garden in 1965-66. He inheited Castle Hills, Berwick-on-Tweed from his father in 1942, but leased it as a maternity hospital from 1943.
He died 22 November 1996. His first wife died 29 April 2010. His second wife died 21 October 1985.

Askew, Henry John (b. 1940) of Ladykirk. 
Only son of Maj. John Marjoribanks Eskdale Askew (1908-96) and his wife, Lady Susan Alice Egerton, daughter of 4th Earl of Ellesmere, born 5 April 1940. Educated at Eton. An officer in the Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1959). Landowner and farmer. He married, 27 January 1978 at Queen's Chapel, Savoy Palace, London (div. 1999), Rosemary Eileen, daughter of Dr. Charles Edmonds Darby Taylor of Little Shelford (Cambs), and had issue:
(1) Jack William Askew (b. 1984), born 21 August 1984; married, c.2012, Sofie (b. 1984), daughter of Bordan Tkachuk, of Nettleden (Herts);
(2) George William Askew (b. 1986), born 25 August 1986; educated at Harrow; a contestant on the UK television programme, Big Brother, 2006; married, c.2015, Lara Alexandra F. (b. 1991), daughter of Nigel Macpherson, of Blofield (Norfk);
(3) William Henry Askew (b. 1992), born 3 November 1992.
He inherited Ladykirk from his father in 1996.
Now living.


Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1850, pp. 29-30; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, pp. 25-26; J.C. Blackmore & J. Wilson, Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, 1836, p. 73; C.R. Hudleston and R.S. Boumphrey, Cumberland Families and Heraldry, 1978, p. 8; Sir N. Pevsner, I. Richmond et al., The buildings of England: Northumberland, 1992, pp. 185, 540; P. Meadows and E. Waterson, Lost Houses of County Durham, 1993, p. 32; K. Cruft, J. Dunbar & R. Fawcett, The buildings of Scotland: Borders, 2006, pp. 478-79; M. Hyde & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Cumbria, 2010, pp. 292-94, 366; 
http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/ded/bra0715.xml


Location of archives


Askew family of Redheugh: deeds, 1784-1918 [Durham Univ., Special Collections, BRA 715]
Askew family of Pallinsburn: estate and family papers, 1725-1912 [Northumberland Archives, 02729]
Askew (and Askew-Robertson) family of Ladykirk: deeds, estate and family papers, 1470-19th cent. [Private Collection; enquiries to National Register of Archives for Scotland]


Coat of arms


Askew of Redheugh and Pallinsburn: Sable, a fesse or, between three asses passant argent, maned and unguled of the second.
Askew-Robertson of Ladykirk: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Gules, three wolves' heads, erased argent, armed and langued azure, all within a bordure of the second; 2nd and 3rd, Sable, a fesse or, between three asses passant argent, maned and unguled of the second.


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Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch.
  • Can anyone provide more information about the ownership history of Glenridding House after 1854?
  • Can anyone provide further early illustrations of Pallinsburn before the rebuilding of 1912?
  • If anyone is able to contribute additional career information, genealogical details or portraits for this family, I should be very pleased to hear from them.


Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 11th April 2016.

Friday, 1 April 2016

(212) Ashworth of Birtenshaw, The Oaks and Horsley Hall

Ashworth of Birtenshaw
The Ashworth family have long roots in central Lancashire as yeomen farmers and can be traced back as far as Robert Ashworth (d. 1583), who lived at Brandwood in Rossendale. The story that they first came to the area to escape the Great Plague of London in 1665 is therefore not true, although the four sons of Henry Ashworth (d. 1670) made the more local move from Rossendale to Turton at about that time, which may have given rise to the story. They settled at two farms, called Great Oak and little Oak, which made up the core of the later Oaks estate. 

The eldest brother, Henry Ashworth (d. 1698), married Isabel, only daughter of John Battersby of the neighbouring farm, Birtenshaw, and through her acquired that property, which became the family's main home. His son John Ashworth (1696-1767) became one of the first men in the area to specialise in textile production. He bought cotton in Liverpool and Manchester and sold, or gave it out on credit, to the local cottage spinners and weavers. He then bought back the finished cloth which he marketed in Bolton or Manchester. His son, Henry Ashworth (1728-1790) shared in the local development of the cotton industry, while retaining his farming interests and also starting what was to become the family occupation of land and property agent. He had a warehouse in Bolton town centre, on the corner of Fold Street and Chancery Lane, and a share in another in Manchester. He had an extensive business in the manufacture of a coarse durable fabric called Thick Sets Fustians and Jeans, using a linen warp called Hambro Yarn and a cotton weft. After the introduction of Arkwright's water-frame a cotton warp was used. It is believed that Henry once employed the inventor of the cotton spinning mule, Samuel Crompton (1753-1827), and also Crompton's future wife, when they were living at Hall'i'th'Wood, to the south of Great and Little Oaks. 

After Henry's death in 1789, his two sons John (1772-1855) and Edmund (1776-1856) continued the family business. Both men had nonconformist sympathies, and John became a member of the Edgworth Quakers in 1793. This faith was be an important part of the family's identity over the next century. Although John's first love seems to have been the farming side of his business (he was a noted agricultural improver, and Secretary of the Manchester Agricultural Society for some years), he expanded the cotton-spinning side of the business. This was a time of rapid expansion in the cotton industry, and increasing numbers of local farmers were getting in on the act, recognising that there were larger profits to be made from industry than from the relatively poor soils of the area. In 1802-03 John built New Eagley Mill and his brother Edmund joined him in a partnership to run it. Neither man, however, wanted to devote his full time to running the business, and they put in managers who through incompetence or inattention contrived to make a loss every year until 1816. At that point, John's son Henry Ashworth (1794-1880) took over the business and was soon joined in the partnership by his brother Edmund Ashworth (1800-81). Together the two brothers quickly turned the fortunes of the firm around, and during the 1820s and 1830s rapidly expanded it, enlarging and re-equipping New Eagley Mill in 1825-28 and buying the half-finished Egerton Mill and completing it in 1829-33. By 1835 the firm was among the most technically efficient and advanced in Lancashire, albeit not the largest.

During the 1830s and 1840s the brothers - particularly Henry, as senior partner - fought hard at local and national level to prevent parliamentary interference in the operation of the free market for labour. They objected in particular to the Factory Acts which sought to limit working hours and the employment of children. After the legislation came into force they fought a running battle with the Factory Inspectors, who because of their high profile opposition, looked for every minor and technical infringement of the rules by the firm as the basis for prosecutions. Lord Ashley (later the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury) saw the Ashworths and John Bright as the principle obstacles to the legislation he sought to be pass. It was not that the brothers sought to be particularly exploitative employers; they were indeed paternalistic in many respects, providing housing and education for their employees, and seeking to enforce moral and ethical standards of behaviour. They genuinely believed that in maximising their own income, employers would make decisions that were in their own best interests and that these would also serve the best interests of the employees and society at large. They also believed that workers, in agreeing their terms of employment, would make similarly informed and rational decisions. They had, apparently, no understanding or recognition of the many factors which operated to distort the market and prevent it delivering optimal decisions, and had a very narrow view of the frame of reference within which their own decisions were made.

In the 1840s, differences began to emerge between the brothers about the running of the business, and in 1854 the partnership was dissolved, with Henry and his sons George Binns Ashworth (1823-1905) and John Ashworth (1826-88) taking New Eagley Mill and Edmund and his sons Edmund Junior (1833-1901) and Samuel (1834-78) taking Egerton Mill. By then, however, the firms had lost their technical edge over their rivals, and although they continued to make good profits for many years the loss of critical mass arising from the division of the partnership pushed them into the second rank of cotton manufacturers. By the time Henry and Edmund died, the decline of the cotton industry had begun: Edmund Ashworth & Sons became part of the English Sewing Cotton Co. conglomerate in 1898 and when that business was consolidated a few years later Egerton Mill was sold; Henry's firm struggled on into the 20th century but was eventually closed by his grandsons under wartime restrictions in 1940.

In 1820, John Ashworth (1772-1855) built a new house at The Oaks, which he handed over to his son Henry on the latter's marriage in 1823. Henry seems to have rebuilt or remodelled The Oaks at the height of his prosperity, in 1838-41 and lived there until his death. What happened to it afterwards is obscure, but none of his children seem to have taken it on and it had been sold by the early 20th century. His son, George Binns Ashworth, made his home at Birtenshaw Hall, which had been rebuilt in the early 19th century and which he apparently extended into a Victorian mansion, perhaps as early as 1867. Edmund Ashworth (1800-81) built a new house (Egerton Hall) overlooking Egerton Mill in 1826 and he and Edmund junior lived there almost all their lives. In 1899 or 1900, however, Edmund junior sold the house to his son's father-in-law, Edward Deakin, who became the manager of Egerton Mill, and moved to London. His younger brother, Alfred Ashworth (1843-1910), who was never in the family firm but became a director of a highly successful firm of towelling manufacturers, lived for twenty years at Tabley Grange (Cheshire) and then in 1898 bought the much larger Horsley Hall near Gresford (Denbighshire), which he aggrandised still further. Alfred's son, Philip Henry Ashworth (1885-1949), had no connection with manufacturing industry and trod the most traditional path through early life (Eton, Oxford, Grenadier Guards) before becoming ADC to the Duke of Connaught in the First World War. In 1917 he sold Horsley Hall to Lord Wavertree and he lived subsequently in London, where he was made bankrupt in the late 1920s, as a result of living beyond his means and losses through land speculations in Canada; he died almost penniless in Switzerland in 1949.


Birtenshaw Hall, Turton, Lancashire


William Linton (1791-1876), The Eagley Valley and Birtenshaw Hall, n.d. Image: Turton Tower/Artworks







Detail of the above picture, showing Birtenshaw Hall
The earliest known view of Birtenshaw Hall is in the mid 19th century painting above by William Linton, which shows a fundamentally picturesque and pre-industrial scene. The small image of the Hall itself, when enlarged, shows a gentleman farmer's house with a white painted two-storeyed hall range and cross-wings to either end. It appears to be 18th or early 19th century, but may well have incorporated the earlier building. In 1770 the farm comprised six bays of housing, five outbuildings, and 33 acres of land, which were leased by Henry Ashworth from John Chetham.

By the time the 1st edition of the 6" Ordnance Survey map was surveyed in 1844-47, however, this farmhouse had evidently been replaced by an almost square building with projections that resemble porches on both the entrance and garden fronts. This building appears to be represented today (see the photograph below) by the two gable ends facing the entrance front and the rear range joining them together. The footprint of the building as shown on successive editions of the map surveyed in 1890 and 1907-08 was essentially unchanged, but by 1928 it had evidently been extended to the west by the addition of a new wing, and this later work appears to correspond with the lower two-storey wing on the right of the entrance front.  Despite the 19th century continuity in the footprint, however, it is recorded that part of the building was pulled down in 1867 (when 18th century invoices relating to Henry Ashworth (1728-90) were found).

Birtenshaw Hall, 1847
Birtenshaw Hall, 1928

Birtenshaw Hall: a mid 20th century photograph
The only old photograph I have been able to trace of the house so far, a mid 20th century view of the garden front, shows an elevation with a big tiled roof, mullioned and transomed windows, massive chimneystacks, and semi-timbered gables which seems likely to date from the 1880s or 1890s (could it be as early as the building work of 1867?), with the recessed semi-timbered wing on the left perhaps part of the early 20th century addition.  The higher roof of the earlier part of the house can be seen behind. It would seem, therefore, that there were additions in the late 19th century which the Ordnance Survey did not record.

The house was abandoned by the Ashworth family in the 1940s and sold in the mid-1950s to a private benefactor who donated it to a local charity concerned to establish a private day school for children with cerebral palsy, which opened in 1956. Since then, the school has expanded into educating children with other kinds of disability, including autism, and into the provision of residential care. The original house was adapted and extended many times to meet the developing requirements of the school and in 2014 was superseded by new buildings on an adjacent site. As a result the original building is now rather buried in later additions.


Birtenshaw Hall: the house today.  The house of c.1840 appears to be the marked by the two gable ends facing the camera.
Descent: John Battersby; to grandson, John Ashworth (1696-1767); to son, Henry Ashworth (1728-89); to son, John Ashworth (1772-1855); to grandson, George Binns Ashworth (1823-1901); to sons, George Harry Ashworth (1865-1954) and Arthur Henwayn Ashworth (1869-1951); sold c.1955; given 1956 to Birtenshaw School.



The Oaks, near Bolton, Lancashire


New Eagley Mill in 1830, with the elevation of the first house at The Oaks visible top right.
The Oaks was built for John Ashworth in 1820 but given to his son Henry on his marriage in 1823. A view of New Eagley Mill in 1830 shows the original three-bay house, with a central porch and tripartite windows above and to either side. This house became too small for Henry's growing family, and a larger five by three bay house, also of two storeys, is said to have been designed for him in 1838 by Richard Lane of Manchester. Lane was a contemporary of his client and also a fellow-Quaker, and they may even have known one another before Lane went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1817; but by 1838 Lane was the leading architect in Manchester. He responded to the picturesque situation above the steep-sided Eagley Brook by giving the new house a fairly plain entrance front with a Greek Doric porch on the landward side, and a more imposing front with a central three bay pediment supported on Ionic pilasters overlooking the valley. 


The Oaks: entrance front, probably photographed shortly before demolition.

The Oaks: a 19th century engraving



There are accounts for decoration work in 1841-42, which may perhaps mark the completion of the building. The first edition 6" Ordnance Survey map (below), surveyed in 1847, suggests that by then the house had acquired a bay window on the valley front which is not shown on the engraving above. The heating arrangements were designed by Benjamin Hick, a local engineer, who was distantly related to the Ashworths. 

The Oaks, as depicted on the Ordnance Survey 6" map surveyed in 1844-47.



W. Moss, Winter at the Oaks as seen from Hall'i'th'Wood, 1925. The hall is just visible top right.
Image: Bolton Council/Artworks

The Oaks was still standing in the early 1950s but was later demolished, perhaps about the time that Canon Slade School moved to its present site in 1956. The site of the house is today a wooded area on the edge of the playing fields of Canon Slade School.

Descent: built for John Ashworth (1772-1855); given 1823 to Henry Ashworth (1794-1880); ...sold c.1906 to John Benjamin Goulburn (d. 1918); sold to Norman Smith (fl. 1924)... sold to Mr & Mrs A.C. Openshaw (fl. 1932-41) ...sold c.1942 to Lancashire County Council for use as a Children's Welfare Hostel established under the Government Evacuation Scheme (fl. 1943-46); demolished c.1956?



Egerton Hall, Lancashire


A late Georgian house, with a front apparently composed of several curved bay windows, built in 1826 for Philip Novelli of Manchester who also constructed the nearby mill. In 1900 it had six reception rooms and eleven bedrooms. It was demolished in 1956.

Descent: Philip Novelli; sold 1829 to Edmund Ashworth (1800-81); to son, Edmund Ashworth (1833-1901); sold 1899/1900 to Edward Deakin (1854-1935); to daughter, Hilda (b. 1882), wife of Edmund Hick Ashworth (1870-1960); vacant 1936-40; used by North London Homes for the Blind, 1940-53; demolished 1956.



Horsley Hall, Gresford, Denbighshire


There is thought to have been a house on this site from the early 15th century, but the first building of which anything is known is said to have been a semi-timbered and moated house, reputedly built for Thomas Powell c.1540.  However, the earliest map evidence dates from the late 18th century and provides no real evidence for a moat. 
Horsley Hall: entrance front in c.1890

Horsley Hall: garden front in c.1890

The 16th-century house was demolished and replaced by a new building for Frederick Potts, a Manchester solicitor who was also the Duke of Westminster's agent, after he bought the estate in about 1865. The new building, which is said to have cost £32,000, had evidently been completed by 1872 when the first 6" Ordnance Survey map of the area was surveyed, as the footprint of the house is essentially the same as that on the next edition of 1899. Photographs published in 1891 show that the house was a large but mostly fairly plain gabled building with tall Tudor-style chimneys, some touches of semi-timbering and one unexpected flourish of fantasy in the Germanic Hansel & Gretel tower on the garden front. The architect is unknown, but may well have come from Manchester as the house has something of the feel of a great suburban villa.



Horsley Hall: an early 20th century view of the entrance front from a glass plate.
Horsley Hall: the south end and east-facing garden front (with tower) in 1952.
Image: © Crown copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales

The Victorian house was itself transformed by a remodelling by G.H. Kitchin of Winchester begun c.1907 for Alfred Ashworth (1843-1910) and completed for his son in 1912. The house was recased in Jacobean style in orange brick with white stone dressings, and although the overall shape remained similar, with long west and east fronts, it was made a good deal grander and larger. On the west front a large single-storey porte-cochere was built, and on the garden side the pre-existing tower was entirely reworked. Inside, the house retained one inscribed 16th century fireplace which is said to have come from the house of that period on the site, and the staircase may also have survived from the mid 19th century house.


Horsley Hall:a 16th century chimneypiece said to have come from the house of that period on the site.
Image: © Crown copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
Horsley Hall: the Victorian main staircase in 1952.
Image: © Crown copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
The house was abandoned in 1934 and largely demolished in 1963, and all that is left of the house is a long, two-storey gabled range, with ruinous walls, very little roof, and a number of tall chimney stacks in Tudor style. The stables also survive in a ruinous condition. 


Horsley Hall: the early 20th century gardens from an old postcard

Horsley Hall: the pedimented garden gateway, reputedly moved from Great Buckingham St., London
Image: © Crown copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
The house was given an elaborate formal garden setting by G.H. Kitchin at the beginning of the 20th century, and although the bones of this layout survive it has been much disrupted by invasive plants in the years of dereliction. A pedimented garden gateway with shell niches to either side, which survived until it was blown down in 1978, came, according to an inscription, from the house in Great Buckingham St., London occupied by Czar Peter the Great of Russia in 1697, but even if the stone dressings were 17th century the bricks dated from the reconstruction by Kitchin in the early 20th century.

Descent: Powell family sold 1792 to John Hughes of Wrexham...sold c.1865 to Frederick Potts (1819-98); sold 1898 to Alfred Ashworth (1843-1910); to son, Philip Henry Ashworth (1885-1949), who remodelled it and laid out the gardens 1907-12 but sold 1917 to William Walker (1856-1933), 1st Baron Wavertree; sold after his death for demolition but acquired by HM Government for army use; sold 1955 and used as a private school briefly; demolished 1963.


Ashworth family of Birtenshaw Hall and The Oaks



Ashworth, Henry (d. 1698). Son of Henry Ashworth (d. 1670) of Wolfenden, Rossendale (Lancs) and his wife Isabella Brooke (d. 1698). Yeoman. He married, 19 October 1693, Isabel (d. 1698), daughter of John Battersby of Birtenshaw (Lancs) and had issue:
(1) Alice Ashworth (b. 1694; d. by 1740), born 5 April and baptised 10 April 1694; married, 30 December 1714, Nathaniel Greenhalgh; died before 1740;
(2) John Ashworth (1696-1767) (q.v.);
(3) Ann Ashworth (b. 1698), born 5 May and baptised 12 May 1698; married, 5 August 1718, Thomas Longworth of Quarlton (Lancs) and had issue.
He lived at Little Oak, Turton (Lancs).
He died 25 January 1698; his effects were valued at £160. His widow died 19 September 1698.

Ashworth, John (1696-1767) of Birtenshaw. Only son of Henry Ashworth (d. 1698) and his wife Isabel, daughter of John Battersby of Birtenshaw (Lancs), born 11 April and baptised 20 April 1696. Yeoman and chapman; by 1720 he was employing some of the spinners and fustian weavers of the Turton district as outworkers; he bought cotton in Liverpool or Manchester, sold it or gave it out on credit to the local cottage spinners and weavers, and bought back the finished yarn or cloth which he then sold in Bolton or Manchester. He married, 25 February 1722/3 Ann Holt (d. 1755) of Musbury in Bury (Lancs), and had issue:
(1) John Ashworth (fl. 1780); assisted his brother Henry in the family spinning and weaving business; married, 2 May 1764, Esther Mason of Horrocks Fold, but died without issue;
(6) Alice Ashworth (1726-59), baptised 22 February 1725/6; died unmarried and was buried 6 December 1759;
(2) Henry Ashworth (1728-89) (q.v.);
(3) Edmund Ashworth (d. 1759); married, 20 February 1757, Ann Dewhurst of Turton and had issue; buried at Bolton, 23 May 1759;
(4) Mary Ashworth (d. 1771); married James Pilkington (d. 1773) of Tong (Lancs) and had issue; buried at Bolton, 12 January 1771;
(5) Margaret Ashworth (d. 1771); married, 1768, James Davenport of Stoney Brow (Lancs) and had issue; died 15 November 1771;
(7) Anne Ashworth (d. 1785); married, 23 April 1764 at Bolton, James Mason of Horrocks Fold and had issue; died 14 July and was buried at Deane (Lancs), 16 January 1785.
He was brought up by his maternal grandparents at Birtenshaw which he seems to have inherited.
He was buried 26 June 1767. His wife died 14 October 1755.

Ashworth, Henry (1728-89) of Birtenshaw. Second son of John Ashworth (1696-1767) and his wife Ann Holt of Musbury, baptised 8 September 1728. Farmer, fustian manufacturer and land agent; he had warehouses in Bolton and Manchester, and acted as a middle man, putting raw cotton out to cottage workers for spinning and weaving, and collecting and selling the resultant fabric. He married, 30 March 1769, a Quaker, Isabel (1747-1804), daughter of John Wood of Turton and had issue:
(1) John Ashworth (b. & d. 1771), baptised 19 July 1771; died in infancy and was buried at Bolton, late August 1771;
(2) John Ashworth (1772-1855) (q.v.);
(3) Alice Ashworth (1774-1802), born 16 September 1774; married, 4 December 1794 at Bolton, Edward Best (d. 1807) and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 17 August 1802;
(4) Edmund Ashworth (1776-1856) of The Folds, Sharples (Lancs), born 27 October and baptised at Bank St. Presbyterian church, Bolton, 7 November 1776; partner in New Eagley Mill; married, 28 September 1809 at Bolton, Mary Kay (d. by 1841?) and had issue one son and three daughters; died Jan-Mar 1856;
(5) Henry Ashworth (b. & d. 1780), born August 1780; died in infancy and was buried 8 September 1780.
He inherited Birtenshaw House from his father in 1767.
He was buried 17 June 1789; when his will was proved his effects were worth between £3,000 and £5,000. His widow was buried 16 November 1804.

Ashworth, John (1772-1855) of Birtenshaw. Eldest surviving son of Henry Ashworth (1728-89) and his wife Isabel, daughter of John Wood of Turton, born 27 August 1772. Farmer, land agent and cotton spinner. After his father's death he continued in business as a fustian manufacturer with his uncle Edmund, but his first interest was in agriculture. He became a renowned improving farmer, and several of his inventions were described in Stevenson's survey of the agriculture of Lancashire in 1795; he was Secretary of Manchester Agricultural Society for some years from 1802. He was also employed as a land surveyor and in 1815 was one of the enclosure commissioners for Horwich (Lancs). In 1802-03, under the influence of his wife's family, he built New Eagley Mill for cotton spinning, which he operated in partnership with his younger brother, Edmund, but neither of them seems to have been much engaged in the business personally and with incompetent managers they contrived to make a loss every year until they gratefully handed the business over to Henry Ashworth in 1818. He became a Quaker in 1793, shortly before his marriage, and he went on to become an overseer and Clerk of the Lancashire Quarterly Meeting. He married, 26 September 1793, Isabel (1771-1852), daughter of Thomas Thomasson of Thomasson Fold, Edgworth (Lancs) and had issue:
(1) Henry Ashworth (1794-1880) (q.v.);
(2) John Ashworth (1796-1879) of Rose Hill, Turton (Lancs), born 21 February 1796; married 1st, 31 May 1820, Sarah (d. 1838), daughter of Edmund Naish of Flax Bourton (Somerset) and had issue four sons and five daughters; married 2nd, 6 October 1840, Grace (d. 1890), daughter of Richard Binns of Crawshawbooth (Lancs) and had further issue six sons and two daughters; died 17 April 1879;
(3) Tabitha Ashworth (1797-1803), born 28 July 1797; died young, 11 February and was buried at Edgeworth, 13 February 1803;
(4) Isabel Ashworth (1799-1827), born 1 January 1799; married, 4 June 1819, Edmund Naish  (1798-1845) of Flax Bourton (Somerset), tanner, son of Edmund Naish of Flax Bourton, and had issue; died 1 November 1827;
(5) Edmund Ashworth (1800-81) (q.v.);
(6) Thomas Ashworth (1802-70) of Claverton Lodge, Bath (Somerset), born 4 August 1802; secretary to two turnpike trusts; married 1st, 25 February 1836, Anne (d. 1838), daughter of Thomas Christy of Chelmsford (Essex) and had issue one son (who died in infancy); married 2nd, 22 July 1841, Sophia (d. 1844), daughter of Jacob Bright of Rochdale (Lancs) and had issue two daughters; married 3rd, 7 October 1847, Alicia Sarah (d. 1891), daughter of Maj-Gen. Sir Edward Nicholls, kt. and had issue a daughter (who died young); died 30 April 1870;
(7) Tabitha Ashworth (1804-72), born 24 January 1804; married, 10 October 1822, Isaac Hadwen (d. 1865) of Liverpool and had issue seven sons and two daughters; died 23 April 1872;
(8) Alice Ashworth (1805-29), born 3 December 1805; died unmarried, 13 February and was buried at Wandsworth (Surrey), 18 February 1829;
(9) Mary Ashworth (1808-09), born 3 February 1808; died in infancy, 30 June 1809;
(10) Joseph Ashworth (b. & d. 1810), born 22 June and died in infancy, 27 June 1810;
(11) William Ashworth (1812-26), born 18 February 1812; died young, 15 November 1826.
He inherited Birtenshaw House from his father in 1790 and apparently rebuilt it c.1840. He also built a new house at The Oaks in 1820 which he gave to his son, Henry.
He died 23 October 1855; will proved 6 December 1855 (effects £40,469). His wife died 19 November 1852.


Henry Ashworth (1794-1880)
Image: detail of original in NPG. 
Some rights reserved.
Ashworth, Henry (1794-1880) of The Oaks. Eldest son of  John Ashworth (1772-1855) and his wife Isabel, daughter of Thomas Thomasson of Thomasson Fold, Edgworth (Lancs), born 4 September 1794. Educated at Ackworth School. Entered his father's cotton spinning business in 1808, and since his father's main interest lay in agriculture, he had assumed control by 1818. He was in partnership with his brother Edmund Ashworth (1800-81) (q.v.) from 1824-54, but increasing disputes between the brothers, unresolved by Quaker arbitration, led to the division of the firm in 1854, with Henry taking New Eagley Mill. He was a paternalistic but not philanthropic employer and resisted all interference with the operation of a free market, including factory legislation and trade unionism. He was one of the founder members of the Anti-Corn Law League. He self-consciously epitomized the northern, nonconformist mill owner, seeking through industrial progress to liberate the middle classes from the shackles of aristocratic rule and strengthen their influence in the country. With his brother he was until 1847 co-owner of the Bolton Free Press newspaper in which he promoted causes such as radical electoral reform, state education, and municipal incorporation. In 1859 he helped to found the National Reform Union, with a view to reviving entrepreneurial radicalism, and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Salford. He was appointed JP for Lancashire in the 1850s. In old age he wrote,  with the help of John Watts, Recollections of Richard Cobden MP and the Anti-Corn Law League, 1876, a lengthy memorial which helped to establish the historical reputation of Cobden and the League. He remained a committed Quaker in religion, but this did not stop him having ‘a most unquakerly passion for the gun’ and he regularly rented Scottish shooting lodges for his holidays. In the 1850s he undertook some travels, visiting Egypt and Palestine in 1855 and the United States, Canada and Cuba about two years later. He was a handsome, physically powerful, man, with a more extroverted enjoyment of good company and conversation than his brother Edmund. He married, 9 January 1823, Letitia (1798-1868), daughter of George Binns, leatherseller, of Liverpool and had issue:
(1) George Binns Ashworth (1823-1905) (q.v.);
(2) Isabella Ashworth (1825-94), born 1 July 1825; married, 11 September 1851, George Crosfield (1820-87) of Walton Lea, Warrington (Lancs), soapmaker, and had issue two daughters; died at Folkestone (Kent), 29 July and was buried at Hounslow (Middx), 2 August 1894; will proved 1 October 1894 (effects £48,740);
(3) John Ashworth (1826-88) of Ollerton, Bolton (Lancs), born 3 August 1826; partner in his father's firm of cotton spinners; married, 11 September 1861, Mary Jane (1838-1902), only daughter of Thomas Knowles of Clively Bank, Pendlebury (Lancs) and had issue four sons and one daughter; died 18 September and was buried at Turton, 22 September 1888; will proved 14 November 1888 (effects £59,907);
(4) Henry Ashworth (1828-62), born 22 March 1828; partner in his father's firm of cotton spinners; died unmarried, 26 September 1862; will proved 13 October 1862 (effects under £10,000);
(5) Sarah Ashworth (1829-96), born 23 July 1829; married, 21 January 1852 at Bolton (Lancs), Frederick Bower (c.1827-1905) of Liverpool and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 21 February 1896; will proved 15 May 1896 (effects £12,860);
(6) William Ashworth (1830-31), born 14 November 1830; died in infancy, 20 January 1831;
(7) Alice Ashworth (1832-99), born 14 March 1832; married, 9 January 1862, Richard Christy JP (1819-98) of Fairfield, Manchester (Lancs) and had issue two sons; died 10 November 1899; administration of her goods was granted 13 January 1900 (estate £3,112);
(8) Letitia Ashworth (1834-82), born 1 September 1834; married, 13 May 1868, George King Harrison JP (1826-1906) of Hagley (Worcs) and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 27 March 1882; administration of goods granted 27 April 1883 (effects £513);
(9) Arthur Ashworth (1836-48), born 4 October 1836; died young, 6 June 1848;
(10) Eliza Ashworth (1838-1919), born 21 November 1838; married, 17 January 1860 at Bolton (Lancs), John Leech (1835-70) of Woodville, Reddish, son of John Leech of Gorse Hall, Stalybridge (Cheshire), and had issue two sons and one daughter; as a widow lived at 4 Kensington Palace Gardens, Kensington (Middx); died 26 September 1919; administration of goods granted 11 November 1919 (estate £46,557);
(11) William Ashworth (1841-83) of Nottingham, born 28 August 1841; married, 6 June 1867 in Truro (Cornwall), (Mary) Philippa (1839-1918), daughter of Robert Tweedy of Tregols, Truro, but had no issue; died 10 November 1883; will proved 7 December 1883 (effects £101).
He was given The Oaks on his marriage in 1823 and rebuilt or remodelled it in 1838-42. 
He died 'of the Roman fever' on his way home from attending the Quaker Yearly Meeting in Italy, 17 May 1880; his will was proved 26 July 1880 (effects under £80,000). His wife died 21 March 1868; her will was proved 12 June 1868 (effects under £1,500).

Ashworth, George Binns (1823-1905). Eldest son of Henry Ashworth (1794-1880) and his wife Letitia, daughter of George Binns of Liverpool, born 29 November 1823. He was born a Quaker but joined the Church of England after his marriage. He travelled in Egypt in 1862. Although brought up to the radical Liberal politics of his father, he moved to the right politically and joined the Tories. JP for Lancashire. He married, 13 August 1863, Ruth (1838-1910), daughter of John Jones JP of Ruckley Grange (Shropshire) and had issue:
(1) George Harry Ashworth (1865-1954) (q.v.);
(2) Arthur Henwayn Ashworth (1869-1951) (q.v.).
He inherited Birtenshaw House from his grandfather in 1855 and appears to have extended it in the 1880s.
He died 9 June 1905; his will was proved 21 September 1905 (estate £115,554). His widow died 15 October 1910; administration of her goods was granted, 11 January 1911 (estate £11,964).


George Harry Ashworth
Ashworth, George Harry (1865-1954). Elder son of George Binns Ashworth (1823-1905) and his wife Ruth, daughter of John Jones JP of Ruckley Grange (Shropshire), born 14 May 1865. Educated at Eton and New College, Oxford (MA), he remained a classical scholar. Cotton manufacturer at New Eagley Mills in partnership with his father (from 1884-1901) and brother until 1940. JP for Lancashire, 1915; County Councillor (later Alderman) for Lancashire, 1910-53; member of Turton Urban District Council, 1891-1954 (Chairman, 1924-26, 1940-41, 1944-45). He was a keen tennis player and enjoyed dancing up to the Second World War. With his brother, he made a gift of £2,000 to Turton UDC which helped to establish Turton Tower as a museum. He was unmarried and without issue.
He inherited Birtenshaw House from his father in 1905 and apparently extended it before 1928.
He died 30 January 1954.

Ashworth, Arthur Henwayn (1869-1951). Younger son of George Binns Ashworth (1823-1905) and his wife Ruth, daughter of John Jones JP of Ruckley Grange (Shropshire), born 3 September and baptised at Bradshaw, 29 September 1869. Cotton manufacturer in partnership with his father (until 1901) and brother (until 1940). He was unmarried and without issue.
He lived with his brother at Birtenshaw House.
He died 7 February 1951; his will was proved 22 October 1951 (estate £129,888).


Ashworth family of Egerton Hall and Horsley Hall




Edmund Ashworth (1800-81)
Ashworth, Edmund (1800-81) of Egerton Hall, Bolton (Lancs). Third son of John Ashworth (1772-1855) and his wife Isabel, daughter of Thomas Thomasson of Thomasson Fold, Edgworth (Lancs), born 17 November 1800. Educated at Quaker schools in Bolton and Manchester, and later studied chemistry under John Dalton at Manchester. Cotton-spinner, initially in partnership with his father, uncle and brother Henry Ashworth (1794-1880) (q.v.), then with his brother only until they parted company in 1854, when he became sole proprietor of Egerton Mill; he handed over control to his sons Edmund and Samuel in 1864. The firm's mills were run on humanitarian lines (Engels acknowledged the relatively good conditions there) and he continued to provide employment through the 'Cotton Famine' depression of the 1860s when most mills stopped and laid off their workers. In partnership with his brother Thomas he bought the Galway Salmon Fishery in Ireland in 1852. He was also a Director of the South Lancashire Fire Insurance Co, Vice-President of the Cotton Supply Association, 1857-81, and a member of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce (President, 1875-77). A radical Liberal in politics and a Quaker in religion (he was described in 1842 as 'a Quaker of the fighting school'), he was was a vocal opponent of the Crimean War, a member of various social reform, temperance, anti-slavery and peace organisations, a founder member of the Anti-Corn Law League and a keen supporter and benefactor of local schools. Until 1847 he and his brother were joint owners of a Liberal newspaper, the Bolton Free Press. He seems not to have wanted public office, and declined an invitation to stand for Parliament in Bolton in 1837 and 1841, but was a member of Bolton Board of Guardians and Chairman of Turton Local Board, 1872-80.  JP for Lancashire, 1847-81 (and thus the first Quaker magistrate in the country). A handsome man, he comes across as more introverted than his elder brother, though perhaps intellectually more able. He married, 7 March 1832, Charlotte (d. 1873), daughter of Thomas Christy of Chelmsford (Essex) and had issue:
(1) Edmund Ashworth (1833-1901) of Egerton Hall (q.v.);
(2) Samuel Ashworth (1834-78) of Egerton Lodge, born 15 August 1834; partner in his father's cotton-spinning business; married, 6 December 1867, Clara (1847-1910), daughter of Samuel Mendel of Manley Hall (Lancs) and The Manor House, Chislehurst (Kent), and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 29 December 1878; will proved 1 July 1879 (effects under £4,000);
(3) Charles Egerton Ashworth (1835-1901) of The Heath, Knutsford (Cheshire), born 23 September 1835; JP and DL for Lancashire and JP for Cheshire; married, 4 August 1869, Mary Ann Taylor (c.1845-84), daughter of Samuel Mendel of Manley Hall (Lancs) and The Manor House, Chislehurst (Kent), but had no issue; died at Mytton Hall, Whalley (Lancs), 22 February 1901; will proved 16 April 1901 (estate £34,830);
(4) Mark Ashworth (1836-1902), born 13 November 1836; emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) and died unmarried there, 20 May 1902;
(5) Rebecca Maria Ashworth (1838-1908); married, 16 December 1874, as his second wife, John Hick (1815-94) of Hill Top, Belmont (Lancs) but had no further issue; died 29 October 1908; will proved 15 January 1909 (estate £36,706);
(6) Charlotte Anne Ashworth (1839-70), born Oct-Dec 1839; died unmarried, 16 May 1870; administration of her effects granted 15 March 1882 (effects £4,163);
(7) Thomas Christy Ashworth (1841-69), born 5 October 1841; died unmarried and without issue, 22 October 1869;
(8) Alfred Ashworth (1843-1910) (q.v.);
(9) Philip Ashworth (1844-71), born 15 November 1844; died unmarried and without issue, 17 January 1871 at the Alameda Hotel, Malaga (Spain) and was buried at the English cemetery there, where he is commemorated by a tomb; administration of his goods granted 13 May 1871 (effects under £5,000).
He bought Egerton Hall, Bolton (Lancs) in 1829.
He died at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Southport (Lancs), 21 March 1881 and was buried at Walmsley (Lancs); his will was proved 22 November 1881 (effects £47,215). His wife died 8 June 1873.


Edmund Ashworth (1833-1901)
Ashworth, Edmund (1833-1901) of Egerton Hall. Eldest son of Edmund Ashworth (1800-81) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Christy of Chelmsford (Essex), born 2 January 1833. A partner in Edmund Ashworth & Sons Ltd, 1864-98, when the firm was one of fourteen that combined to form the English Sewing Cotton Co. JP for Lancashire. He was a member of Turton Local Board and Urban District Council, 1873-89 (Chairman, 1882-86). He married, 19 February 1868, Margaret Elizabeth (1847-1929), daughter of John Hick JP MP of Hill Top, Belmont, Bolton (Lancs) and had issue:
(1) Edmund Hick Ashworth (1870-1960), born 13 May and baptised at Walmsley, 21 June 1870; stockbroker; married, Apr-Jun 1902, Hilda (1882-1964), daughter of Edward Deakin of Hill Top, Belmont (Lancs) but had no issue; died 24 June 1960; will proved 12 September 1960 (estate £53,081); 
(2) Charlotte Beatrice Ashworth (1871-1905), baptised at Walmsley, 13 December 1871; married, 11 December 1900, Rev. John Briscoe Bromfield (1862-1910); died 11 January 1905;
(3) Margaret Ashworth (1873-1956), baptised at Walmsley, 21 June 1873; married, 27 January 1898 at Walmsley, Harvey Richard Drew, stockbroker, of Bletchingley (Surrey), son of Richard William Drew, gent., and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 9 March 1956; will proved 25 July 1956 (estate £14,602);
(4) Winifred Mabel Ashworth (1875-1938), born 14 March and baptised at Walmsley, 14 April 1875; died unmarried, 17 January 1938 and was buried at Godstone (Surrey); will proved 28 March 1938 (estate £19,580);
(5) Sylvia Mary Ashworth (1878-1958), born Jul-Sep 1878; died unmarried, 28 April 1958; will proved 8 July 1958 (estate £47,522).
He inherited Egerton Hall from his father in 1881 but sold it in 1899 or 1900 to his son's father-in-law, Edward Deakin and moved to Kensington (Middx). His widow lived latterly at Weybridge (Surrey).
He died in London, 10 May and was buried at Christ Church, Walmsley (Lancs), 15 May 1901; his will was proved 4 July 1901 (estate £894). His widow died 20 February 1929 and was buried at Godstone (Surrey), where she is commemorated by a tombstone that gives her dates incorrectly as 1846-1928; her will was proved 25 April 1929 (estate £6,703).

Ashworth, Alfred (1843-1910) of Horsley Hall. Sixth son of Edmund Ashworth (1800-81) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Christy of Chelmsford (Essex), born 23 April 1843. A director of W.M. Christy & Sons Ltd. of Stockport and Droylsden (Cheshire), towelling manufacturers, 1874-1910 (Chairman, 1901-08). JP for Cheshire and Denbighshire, 1901. A Unionist in politics. A keen sportsman, who hunted and shot regularly. He married, 17 February 1881, Edith Alice (c.1856-1904), daughter of Frederick Bower of West Dean Park (Sussex) and had issue:
(1) Philip Henry Ashworth (1885-1949) (q.v.).
He leased or bought Tabley Grange (Cheshire) in about 1880 and sold it when he bought Horsley Hall, Gresford (Denbighshire) in 1898. In 1906 he bought the adjoining 700 acre Parkside estate and at about the same time he initiated a major remodelling of Horsley Hall and its grounds which was completed by his son.
He died of a heart attack, 21 October 1910 and was buried at Gresford; administration of his goods was granted 5 December 1910 (estate £3,650). His wife died after a short illness, 15 November 1904; her will was proved 31 March 1905 (estate £12,882).

Ashworth, Philip Henry (1885-1949) of Horsley Hall. Only child of Alfred Ashworth (1843-1910) of Horsley Hall, Gresford (Denbighs.) and his wife Edith Alice, daughter of Frederick Bower of West Dean Park, born 4 October and baptised 22 November 1885 at Great Budworth (Cheshire). Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (MA 1912); served in Cheshire Imperial Yeomanry (Lt., 1908-10) and Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1914; Lt.; Capt).; ADC to HRH The Duke of Connaught, 1917-21; awarded Italian Order of the Crown; JP for Denbighshire; High Sheriff of Denbighshire, 1913. He seems to have been a spendthrift, and became acutely financially embarrassed in the early 1920s, apparently as a result of speculation in Canadian property. Although he appears to have avoided bankruptcy in 1921, his finances never recovered and he was made bankrupt later in the 1920s (discharged 1930); he attributed the disaster to 'living beyond his means', a considerable achievement given inheritances totalling £200,000 and a marriage portion of £62,500. He married, 20 July 1909 at St Peter, Eaton Square, Belgravia (Middx), Dorothy Muriel Crichton (1884-1937), second daughter of Sir William Vincent, 12th bt. of D'Abernon Chase, Stoke D'Abernon (Surrey), and had issue:
(1) Ivo Vincent Ashworth (1910-47), born 10 June 1910; served with Royal Pioneer Corps (private, 1939; sergeant, 1940; Lt., 1941; Capt., 1944; Major (Acting Colonel at the time of his death)); married, 18 July 1946 at Lacock (Wilts), Patricia Beryl (1910-48), daughter of Col. Waldron Harold Fletcher Kelly of Pipers Mill, Fontmell Magna (Dorset) but had no issue; murdered by intruders on the verandah of his bungalow at Fayid (Egypt) while Deputy Director of Labour in the Suez Canal zone, 17 November 1947; buried at Fayid War Cemetery, Al Isma'iliyah (Egypt); will proved 15 April 1948 (estate £3,315); his widow shot herself in the grounds of Maunsell Grange near Bridgwater (Somerset), 3 June 1948;
(2) Rosemary Ashworth (1911-95), born 11 October 1911; married, Oct-Dec 1936, Richard Isdell Howard Isdell-Carpenter (1909-86) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 6 October 1995 and was buried at Kirdford (Sussex); will proved 27 February 1996;
(3) Daphne Ashworth (1916-2001), born 13 April 1916; married, Oct-Dec 1948, Eric Ford and had issue two sons; died June 2001.
He inherited Horsley Hall, Gresford (Denbighs.) from his father in 1910 and completed the remodelling of the house and grounds. He sold the estate to Lord Wavertree in 1917 and lived thereafter in London.
He died 22 July 1949 at Montana Hall, Montana (Switzerland); administration of goods with will annexed granted 14 January 1950 (effects £100). His wife died 17 January 1937 and was buried at Stoke d'Abernon (Surrey); administration of her goods was granted 17 August 1937 (effects £510).


Sources


Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, pp. 66-67; E. Powell, The pedigree of the family of Powell of Horsley, 1891; R. Boyson, The Ashworth cotton enterprise: the rise and fall of a family firm, 1818-80, 1970; E. Hubbard, The buildings of Wales: Clwyd, 1986, p. 388; T. Lloyd, The lost houses of Wales, 2nd edn., 1989, p. 25; R.J. Silvester, Horsley Hall, Marford - Archaeological Assessment, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, 2000; R. Lowe, Lost houses in and around Wrexham, 2002, pp. 58-59; ODNB entries on Henry Ashworth (1794-1880) and Edmund Ashworth (1800-81); http://www.boltonsmayors.org.uk/ashworth-e.html; 


Location of archives


Ashworth family of Birtenshaw: family papers, c.1880-94 [Lancashire Archives, DDAs]
Ashworth, Henry (1794-1880): family correspondence, political and personal notebooks, 19th cent. [Private Collection: enquiries to Archives Sector Development, The National Archives]; misc. correspondence, papers and diaries, 1819-73 [Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford, D3016]; scrapbooks about Preston millworkers strike, 1854 [Lancashire Record Office, DDPr 138/87a]
Henry Ashworth & Co., cotton spinners (and predecessors): business records, 19th cent. [Lancashire Archives, DDAs]; accounts, stock book, 1831-79 [John Rylands University Library, Manchester, Eng. MS. 1201]; registers of children employed, valuations and family papers, 1823-87 [Bolton Archives & Local Studies, ZWL50-69, ZZ/31]
Edmund Ashworth, cotton spinner: private ledger, n.d. [Private Collection: enquiries to Archives Sector Development, The National Archives]


Coat of arms


The arms are given alternatively, by different sources as either:
Gules, a cross engrailed humettée or, between four fleurs-de-lis argent (illustrated above);
or:
Gules, a passion cross invected, or, between four lozenges saltirewise argent, each charged with a fleur-de-lis azure.


Can you help?


Here are a few notes about information and images which would help to improve the account above. If you can help with any of these or with other additions or corrections, please use the contact form in the sidebar to get in touch.
  • The houses described in the article are unusually poorly documented. If anyone can provide any further information, drawings or photographs of Birtenshaw Hall, The Oaks or Egerton Hall that can make the account above fuller and more accurate, please get in touch. A photograph of Egerton Hall would be particularly welcome.
  • If anyone is able to provide additional career information, genealogical details or portraits for this family, especially for the earlier generations, I should be very pleased to hear from them.
  • Can anyone throw more light on the financial disaster which appears to have befallen Philip Henry Ashworth (1885-1949) in the years 1919-21?
  • Does anyone know more about the business careers of George Harry Ashworth (1865-1954) and Arthur Henwayn Ashworth (1869-1951), and the later years of Henry Ashworth & Co.?


Revision and acknowledgements


This post was first published 1 April 2016 and updated 2 April 2016. I am grateful to Jeff Chambers for addition information about P.H. Ashworth.