Presented by the Museum’s curator, Michael Turner, the lecture focused on several of the objects amongst the museum’s collection of antiquities.

The Nicholson Museum was founded in 1860 following the donation by Sir Charles Nicholson (Sydney University’s second chancellor 1854-1862), of his private collection of antiquities and curiosities. Since that time the museum has been overseen by eight different curators, all with different expertise and vision for the development of its collections. As a result the museum has grown in size and scope, today comprising nearly 30,000 artefacts of artistic and archaeological significance from Egypt, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and the Near East. From the intriguing to the macabre, the Nicholson Museum provides insight into the minds of the archaeologists, collectors and curators who have contributed to making our museum a unique Australian cultural institution. Among the museum’s curios are some ivories excavated from Nimrud on the River Tigris by the archaeologist Max Mallowan, husband of crime writer Agatha Christie, who often accompanied him on his digs.

Until recently, the family origins of the museum’s founder, Sir Charles Nicholson, were shrouded in mystery. While conducting research on Nicholson, Michael Turner uncovered the hidden secret of his illegitimate birth. Nicholson claimed to have been born in 1808 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, and also in Bedale in Yorkshire, to a respectable and comfortable parents. In fact he was born in Yorkshire, the bastard son of Barbara Ascough, and was baptised as Isaac Ascough on 1st December 1808 at a little chapel in Ugglebarnby, Yorskshire. His mother died in 1814, and he was brought up by his maternal uncle William Ascough, and his maternal aunt Mary Ascough. William Ascough was a sea captain who was the master of numerous convict transports to Australia and the young Isaac’s care was entrusted to Mary in his absence. They were established in Bedale in North Yorkshire and at some stage his name was changed from Isaac Ascough to Charles Nicholson, no doubt to conceal his illegitimate birth. Uncle William financed his education which culminated in his graduation in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1833.

The following year, probably at the instigation of his now prosperous uncle, William Ascough, he emigrated to New South Wales. William Ascough had married Susannah Blachford, sister of the second wife of prominent entrepreneur and pastoralist Captain William Cox of the Hawkesbury area. In 1824, no doubt through this connection with the Cox family, early pioneers of the Mudgee district, William acquired a 1,200 acre land grant on the Cudgeong River north-west of the future site of the town of Mudgee. Ascough’s grant, Portion 55 of the Parish of Munna in the County of Wellington, was supervised by George Cox, William’s son, as it adjoined his own 995 acre grant on the western boundary of the town of Mudgee.

William Ascough sold his Mudgee grant to James Dalgarno in 1834 and in 1836 the land was onsold to George Cox. In 1856 George Cox sold a small 75 acre portion of Ascough’s grant to his nephew Francis Cox, son of his brother Henry, which contained the Old Menah homestead, now demolished. This site also contained the site of the Camping Tree. In 1861 George Cox sold 285 acres of Ascough’s grant to merchant Richard Crossing who subsequently built Enfield homestead thereon. In 1880 George Cox’s trustees sold the remainder of Ascough’s grant to Richard Crossing’s son, Henry Crossing, who subsequently built Menah homestead thereon. Menah remains in the hands of Crossing family descendants, the de Kantzow family. 

William Ascough drowned at sea in 1836 while sailing from Sydney Harbour to the Hawkesbury where he also had land. Having no children, his nephew Charles Nicholson was the heir to his extensive estate which was the base of Nicholson’s wealth which he himself extended. Nicholson went on to become one of New South Wales’ most prominent citizens, as a merchant, landowner and politician. He was knighted in 1852 and made a baronet in 1859. He went to England in 1862 and never returned to Australia, although he strongly maintained the connection and promoted Australian interests. He died in 1903, aged 95 years, leaving three sons, two of whom succeeded to the baronetcy which is now extinct. He was always vague with his own family about his origins.

Dennis de Kantzow, a lecturer for many years at Sydney University, and his son Michael attended Michael Turner’s lecture.