The Story of George Askew and Jane Cuthbertson

George and Jane are my maternal great grandparents. George was born on 27th December 1852 in the tiny village of Toynton St Peter in Lincolnshire. His parents were James Askew and Lucy Sharpe who married in nearby Wainfleet St Mary on 20th September 1833. On George's birth certificate, his father's occupation is given as labourer.

Sometime in his twenties, George travelled to Rotherham to find work as a coal miner and was here he met Jane Cuthbertson. Jane was born on 30th November 1836 in Westoe, East Jarrow, Durham. Her parents were Thomas Cuthbertson and Eleanor (Ellen) Serowther. On Jane's birth certificate, her father's occupation is given as Joiner.

We know from the Census of 1871 that Jane, her parents and two brothers had moved from Durham after 1861 and were living at Rabbit Burrow, Masbrough in Rotherham. Jane was 14 years old. Her father was still a Carpenter, possibly working in the mines.

How did George and Jane meet? Were they living close by, or did George work with her father at the pit? However it happened, by the 1881 Census George and Jane had started a family and were living on College Road in Masbrough, close to Jane's parents. The 1881 Census (and every future Census) records George and Jane a being married, but despite exhaustive searches, there is no record of this event. What we do know is that their eldest child, Eleanor, was born in 1877 and was living at the age of 4 with Jane's parents, possibly because Jane had just given birth to her third child Lilly, a sister to their second child James. However Eleanor was again living with her grandparents ten years later according to the 1891 Census.

The 1891 Census is quite interesting in that the Askews and Cuthbertsons live next door to each other at 22 and 20 College Road, Masbrough. The Askew family had grown considerably. Apart from the eldest child Eleanor (14) living with, and probably helping her mother's parents, Thomas and Eleanor Cuthbertson, there are now five other children of George and Jane: Lily (10), Mary (8), Isabella (6), Jane (4) and Thomas (one month). But where is James. He would have been 12 but he is not recorded, nor can he be found on any future Census. So he may have died.

On to the 1901 Census. George and Jane have had more children. Thomas (11) is still living with his parents, but all his five elder sisters, except one, have left home. But that is another story. The new children are Lucy (9), George (6), my grandfather Ralph (5) and Rose, the last of their eleven children, (3). They are now living at 46 Chemist Lane in Rotherham. The exception noted above is the eldest daughter Eleanor. She had married a Ralph Harrison a few years before and they have moved in with her parents, together with their own three children: Lilly (5), George (2) and Blanche (4 Months). That makes twelve living together. Thomas Cuthbertson (now 68 and still a Joiner) and his wife Eleanor (64) are still living at 20 College Road.

 Finally to the 1911 Census. George is now 57 and is still a miner and Jane is 54. They live at House 2, Court 3 Mary Street, Masbrough, Rotherham, the area they have made home for over 30 years. Sons Thomas (21), George (17) and my grandfather Ralph (15) are living with them. Thomas is a miner and the other two sons are Pit Boys (Underground). Rose is also there aged 13, and so is her grandmother Eleanor Cuthbertson now 75, Thomas her husband had probably died.

The only other record after this date is the marriage of Ralph Askew and Edith Agnes Leather (my maternal grandparents) on 1st August 1921. George Askew is recorded as Ralph's father, living at 29 Mary Street, Masbrough, and still a miner at 67. George died on 7th February 1926 at 29 Mary Street of cerebral thrombosis at the age of 73. He must have been some tough guy. He and Jane, though never officially married, had eleven children. The story of the eldest five daughters comes next.

P.S. 13th November 2015. I said that there was no record of the marriage of George Askew and Lucy Cuthbertson. That was because I was yet again defeated by the surname. George Ascough (not Askew) was married to Jane on 23rd November 1873 and below is the marriage certificate. But on every entry of a child's birth and every Census from 1881, the surname is Askew.