Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/621

 12 s. vii. DEC. 25,1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

513

ASKELL FAMILY (12 S. vii. 409). One Robert Haskeldon or Askell entered Win- chester College from Broughton in 1468 (Kirby, 'Winchester Scholars,' p. 79).

Prof. Ernest Weekley in ' The Romance jf Names ' at p. 39, says : "We find both Astill and Askell for the mediaeval Asketil." The same authority in ' Surnames ' at p. 30, writes :

" The Aasin, as Miss Yonge calls them, the Ansen as they are named by the Germans, were the divine race inhabiting Asgard, the Norse Olympus. This very interesting prefix, which may be taken as almost equivalent to God, appears in three forms. The Norse is As, the Anglo-Saxon is Os, and the German is Ans. From Ascytel we have Ashkettle and the contracted Askell^ Astell, etc., while in France a kind of compromise between the Norse and German forms produced Anquetil, introduced into England as Askettle. So Fr. Angot is the doublet of Osgood. In Haskell we have the common addition of the aspirate [Haschetill Werglice, Salisbury Chart-.] Several surnames preserve the Anglo-Saxon form (Osborn, Osman, Osmond,, Oswald, etc.), while the German gave the famous Anselm whence our Ansell, Hassell, and the Dutch dim. Enslin,"

There were Astells in Yorkshire and Astalls in Berkshire in 1592, and there are Astells and Astills in London to-day : but no Askells. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

Elizabeth, wife of Richard Askell of Tanfield, co. Durham, was buried there Apr. 14, 1791 ; and Mary their daughter on June 10, 1791.

Eleanor, daughter of George Askell of Clough Dene by Tanfield, Durham, was baptized at Tanfield, June 28, 1778 ; John, son of Richard Askell of Tanfield, was bap- tized there July 20, 1794 ; Robert Askell, farmer of Mainsbank by Stamfordham, Norfolk, was living there in 1827-8.

BESSIE GREENWELL.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

I noticed this uncommon name, which, with Haskell, Mr. S. Baring- Gould, in his ' Family Names and their Story, ' says is derived from the Scandinavian name Askulfr, in the modern church-yard of St. Edmund's, Northampton, in September, 1907. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

One of the many corruptions of the early and popular name of Anskettle or Oskettle, such as Askettle, Askill, Aiskell,- Askel, Astell, Astill, &c.,

Bardsley says " kettle " as a suffix always became kell, kill or kle, and that the name was probably a Norman introduction. In the first year of Edward III., a Robert

Asketil is noted in the co. of (Somerset. In. 1273 Jordan Asketil in Suffolk, and Peter Askyl in Cambridgeshire. In 1361 Simort Asketel was Rector of Boyton, Norfolk, and in 1391 Roger Asketil was Rector of Rand- worth, Norfolk. In 1563 "Ales Askell,, widowe," was married at St. Mary Alder- manbury Church, London.

W. JAGGARD, Capt. *

GASPAR BARLAEUS (12 S. vii. 431). Gaspard van Baerle, better known as Barlaeus, a Dutch poet, theologian and physician, was born at Antwerp, Feb. 12,. 1584, and died at Amsterdam, Jan. 14, 1648, He studied at the University of Leyden, taking up first theology and later medicine. From the information on the portrait he must have been professor of logic and Vice- Rector of that University sometime before 1625. In 1635 he was appointed professor of philosophy and eloquence at the Uni- versity of Amsterdam. He published eleven works the titles of which I can supply if desired. Probably his father's name was Gaspard as his uncle Melchior van Baerle wrote a poem ' De rerum humanarum Vicissitudine, ad Casparum Barlaeum fra- trem ' (Plantin), 1566, 8vo. He had a. brother Lambert van Baerle.

RORY FLETCHER. 5 Hillside Road, Streatham Hill.

Caspar van Baerle, to give him back his- vernacular name, is now chiefly remem- bered as a voluminous writer of Latin verse* In this capacity he addressed a poem of" nearly six hundred lines to Charles I. He also celebrated Queen Henrietta Maria, and the subject of his 'Venus Britannica ' was- the wedding of Charles's daughter Mary and Prince William of Orange. Another poem is devoted to his patron William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Readers of" Mr. E. V. Lucas's 'Wanderer in Holland ' may remember van Baerle 's unsuccessful 5 suit to the poetess Tesselschade Visscher.

Caspar van Baerle was born at Antwerp in 1584, son of a father of the same name- and Cornelia Eerdwijn. His parents took refuge from religious persecution in Holland. Caspar the younger studied theology at Leyden, became a " predikant " in the- co.untry, then Vice-principal of a Theological College, and, at the end of 1617, a lecturer- on Logic in the University of Leyden. In 1619, in consequence of his Arminian views,., he was dismissed from his posts. He then went to France, studied medicine and!