ASKEW or ASCUE, ANNE (1521 ?-1546), English Protes tant, born at Stallingborough about 1521, second daughter of Sir William Askew (d. 154o) of South Kelsey, Lincoln. She came to London and made friends with Joan Bocher, who was already known for heterodoxy, and other Protestants. Anne was examined for heresy by the lord mayor (March , then by Bishop Bonner, and then (June 13 1545) brought up as a sacramentarian at the Guildhall. These efforts having failed, she was brought on June 18 1546 before a special commission without jury and with out witnesses, and was condemned, on her confession, to be burnt. On the following day she was racked, and after four weeks in prison was burnt at Smithfield (July 16) .
It is probable that the pertinacity displayed against Anne was due to the desire of the reactionary party to intimidate Hertford and Catherine Parr who were suspected of sympathy with her. two tracts, printed at Marburg in Nov. 1S46 and Jan. 1547, are the basis of Foxe's account. See also Acts of the Privy Council , PP. 462 ; Wriothesley's Chron. i. 167-9 ; Narratives of the Reformation, passim ; Gough's Index to Parker Soc. Publications; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; Dixon's Hist. of the Church of England; Dict. Nat. Biog.
Her torture, disputed by Jardine, Lingard and others, is sub stantiated not only by her own narrative, but by two contemporary chronicles, and by a contemporary letter; ibid., Narratives of the Reformation, p. 3o5 ; Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd ser. ii.