Place Name
This is often attributed to Anthony Askew, an 18thCentury landowner, physician and bibliophile, whose collection of rare and valuable books took 20 days to auction off after his death in 1774. However, the Askew family’s connection with Hammersmith was far better established after Anthony’s death, although his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of major landowner Robert Holford, was buried at St Paul’s Church. A better claim may be had by his son Adam Askew (1757 – 1844), high sheriff of Durham. In 1830 Adam bought 43 acres of land in west Chiswick. But it was by his marriage to Amy Ann Carey, eldest daughter of Robert Carey, a wealthy Virginia tobacco merchant based in the City that secured the Askew’s association with the area. The Careys had owned land in Hammersmith and Chiswick since the mid-18thCentury. When Amy Ann died in 1831, her share of the Careys’ Hammersmith/Chiswick estate came into the Askew family.
