The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Author: George Stanley Swales Jr.
Thomas Erskine/Askey is the compatriot cited for my membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.
Thomas was born 1727 in Antrim, Ireland, immigrated to Maryland in 1742, and died in 1807, at Howard, Bald Eagle Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the Licking Run Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Jacksonville, Pennsylvania. His parents were Thomas S. Erskine/Aspy (1691-1755) and Ellenor Stephenson (1694-1775), both of Scotland, who also immigrated with their children to America.
Thomas Erskine/Askey was an Ensign and later a Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, in the 7-years war (French & Indian War, 1754-1763), under Colonels Armstrong and Henry Bouquet. For his service, he received four officer land grants, eventually selling three of them, before settling on and farming a 288 acre parcel near Howard, Centre County, Pennsylvania in June 1784. He married Elizabeth “Betsey” Baker on 12 June 1764 on the grounds of the colonial fort at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in a ceremony conducted by Reverend John Conrad Bucher. They had at least 10 children. Robert Alexander Askey, one of the ten children and my 4th great grandfather, served in the War of 1812, eventually settling in Pike Township, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, where I spent a large part of my childhood.
In 1777, Thomas applied for and was granted a military commission as captain in the Cumberland County Militia under Colonel James Dunlap, continuing to serve until the Revolution ended. The units in which Thomas served fought in the battles at Brandywine, Frankstown and Standing Stone.
Today, approximately three-quarters of Thomas Erskine/Askey's farm is submerged under a lake that was made from Sayers Dam.
Sources:
From the Valleys of the Susquehanna: The Story of the First Askey Family in America, September, 1994, by Donald E. Askey, West Branch Publications, State College, Pennsylvania.
History of Centre and Clinton Counties Pennsylvania, 1883, by John Blair Linn, p. 326, J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“The Fair Play Men: Askey & Atkins-Memoirs of the Pioneers on Pine Creek”, by Helen H. Russell, July 20, 1959, p. 6, The Express, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.
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