Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry

Poet and shoemaker. Born 20 or 25 July 1825 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Askham was largely self-educated and from a working-class family. Married Hannah Bonham on 6 January 1847 and, after her death, Rebecca Eliza Cox on 22 May 1864. Contributed poems to the *Wellingborough Independent* and was a correspondent for the *Northampton Mercury*. Author of *Sonnets on the Months, and Other Poems* (1863), *Descriptive Poems* (1866), *Judith, and Other Poems* (1868), *Poems and Sonnets* (1875), *Sketches in Prose and Verse* (1893). Influenced by John Clare. Founder of the Wellingborough Literary Institute and elected a member of the school board in 1871. Biographical information: *ODNB*. (SP, AC)