John was born in 1490 in Lasingcroft, Yorkshire. His parents were William Gascoigne and Margaret Kighley.
On 5 Oct 1506 he married Anne Vavasour in Kirkby Yorshire. They had 13 children.
- Thomas 1509 - 1565
- Richard 1512 - 1592
- John (of Parlington) 1513 - 1602
- Robert 1515-
- William 1517 - 1517
- Frances 1519 -
- Alice 1521 - 1614
- Elizabeth 1521 - 1614
- Joan 1523 -
- Katherine 1527 -
- George 1531 - 1620
- Grace 1532 - 1590
- Anne (or Agnes) 1533 - 1568
John died on 20 Nov 1557 in Lasingcroft.
It was this John Gascoigne who purchased the Parlington estate in 1546 from Thomas Wentworth.
After John Gascoigne’s death in 1557 the estate passed to his eldest son Thomas, but he only had an illegitimate daughter Elizabeth. On his death the estate passed to John’s second son Richard, who had no issue. This Richard Gascoigne was prosecuted by the Duchy of Lancaster in 1582 for illegal mining. He won his case as Lord of the Manor of Shippen, and produced in evidence a mining lease in the Manor of Shippen dated 1262. It is safe to assume that the Gascoignes had made money from coal extraction, since they first came to Lasingcroft.
When Richard died in 1592, the estate passed to John’s third son John and on his death the estate went to his son John Gascoigne, who succeeded in 1602. It was this younger John who bought his baronetcy in 1635, but he died two year later. During the later years of the 16th Century he had turned away from the teachings of the reformed Church of England and returned to the Roman Catholic faith. Failure to attend the services of the Established Church was illegal and carried a heavy fine. Such non-attenders were called ‘recusants’ and as such the Gascoignes endured much persecution during the 17th Century. A list drawn up in 1604 showed that Barwick had 21 recusants, which was a large number compared with other places.