Nat Gould

Martha Askey 1876-1911

Martha Askey was born in 1876 at Alstonefield in Staffordshire, the daughter of William Askey 1844-1917 and his wife nee Jane Berisford 1841-1919. In the family she was known as Patty.

In 1891 she was working aged fourteen as a domestic servant at the farm of John Cotten at the Rakes, Bank Top, Sheen in Staffordshire (1).

When the 1901 Census was taken she was in London working as a domestic servant in the household of John H. White, a grocer, at 175 High Street in St. Pancras. Living there also were some young apprentices. While in London she became pregnant, and walked all the 102 miles back home to her parents in Alstonefield. She had a son Herbert Askey born in 1902 and baptised on 17 August 1902 at Alstonefield. He was brought up by his grandparents in Alstonefield (2).

In 1904 she was married to Ernest Bagshaw. He was born in Manchester in 1878, and worked in the limestone quarry at Grin Low in Ladmanlow near Buxton in Derbyshire. They had a daughter Hannah Bagshaw born on 18 April 1910. She married Ronald Emmerson of Buxton, and died in 1997.

Martha Bagshaw died in 1911 aged only 33 years, greatly loved and deeply mourned.

Her infant daughter was with brother Thomas Askey and his family at Foxlow Grange near Buxton in 1911, but was brought up as their own daughter by sister Jane Wardle and her husband.

(1) Working there also was Joseph Berrisford aged fifteen (born in Alstonefield in 1876) who may have been her cousin.
(2) Herbert Askey was called up for army service in the Second World War, and died on 8 December 1939. He was buried in Hatfield Park War Cemetery, Hertfordshire, where there is a gravestone inscribed to his memory.