A NEW Zealand-born research student has unearthed a fascinating letter linking a deeply-rooted local family with America and reaching back to the reign of William the Conqueror.

The story weaves its way around Ashton, Earlestown and Billinge. And full details are revealed in the letter, written in 1934 by the student's great-great aunt to his great-great grandmother.

It concerns the historic Gaskell family, who farmed the rolling acres of Ashton for eight centuries, from shortly after the Norman Conquest until some time around 1860.

The family then emigrated to America and every trace of all but one of them promptly vanished.

Now, the intrepid Kiwi, who researches under the name of Joe Patch, is jetting off to the USA, to tackle the daunting task of seeking out descendants of his Lancashire great-great-great grandparents, John Gaskell and Cecily Burgess.

Meanwhile, he hopes to recruit the help of any customers of this column who may be local descendants. Clues are sought from them as to where present-day Gaskells might have become scattered in America.

Anyone with helpful leads is invited to drop me a line at the Star. I will then forward any information to Joe in America, via the Internet.

Joe has already discovered that one member of the clan, James Gaskell, returned from America in 1875 to marry his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Wilcock, of Chadwick Green, Billinge. The house where she was born still stands at the bottom of Carr Mill Road.

James Gaskell and bride, Sarah, settled in Bryn to raise four daughters - Bessie, Cecily, Helen and Janie. Bessie married a James Anderton of Earlestown and they produced four children - Thomas, Mary, Jack (or James) and Janie (Jane).

Our New Zealand correspondent, a great-grandson of Helen Taylor, nee Gaskell, is especially hopeful that descendants of James and Bessie Anderton of Earlestown might still have contact with their American relatives.

Here's an extract from the letter, written in March, 1934 by Cecily Baybutt, formerly Gaskell, which has prompted Joe Patch's American quest:

'Dear Helen,

The Gaskells came over with the Gerards as their vassals when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. Living in Ashton today are the descendants of two other families who came over from Normandy, the Lowes and the Roses. The Gerards, in return for their services to William the Conqueror, were awarded great tracts of land in Lancashire between Wigan and Warrington. The Gaskells, Lowes and Roses would have been their men-at-arms, and in return for services would have been granted smaller tracts of land. The Gaskells became yeoman farmers on the Gerard estates.

I have heard our father talk of his grandfather William Gaskell and grandmother Helen Gaskell who lived at Low Bank Farm, Ashton. They had two sons, John and James.

John was our grandfather. He had a farm of his own, the Green Halges in North Ashton, and married Cecily Burgess, our grandmother. They had a large family of 12 sons and two daughters, three sons dying in infancy.

Our father used to tell me that grandfather objected to being forced to pay tithe to support the Protestant clergy so he sold his farm and took his family to America, except for Uncle William who was at Ushaw College, Durham, studying for the priesthood. Uncle Will died soon after his Ordination. He was attending the sick when typhus fever was raging at Seaham Harbour, Durham. He caught the fever and died in 1865.

Our father came back to England in 1875 and married our mother. They were lovers before father went to America.

Grandmother, Cecily Burgess, was a daughter of one of the younger branches of the Burgesses who were smaller gentry and came from near Lancaster. They were staunch Catholics and during the penal days came to Bryn to be under the protection of the Gerards, one of the leading Catholic families of the country.

When penal laws were relaxed, the elder branch of the Burgess family went back to their home near Lancaster whilst the younger branch remained in Bryn.

To this day, a great treasure, the Martyrs' Altar, is in the possession of Mrs Clarkson, of Bolton-le-Sands. This lady is the direct descendant of the eldest branch of the Burgesses.

She has a son, a priest. Father Baybutt, my brother-in-law, knows him well and has often talked about this altar. It's an oak cupboard with a concealed altar on which many Lancashire priests, including the martyrs, Father Edmund Campion and Father Edmund Arrowsmith, offered mass in the dead of night during the penal days.'

A TRULY fascinating step back in history. Anyone able to help Joe's family quest can write to: Whalley's World, St Helens Star, YMCA Buildings, Duke Street, St Helens WA10 2HZ.

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