Assauwe torn (0): 
Also spelled Asso (see next entry), and believed to be an old, typically Estonian name. Tower thought named after city herdsman identified as existing 1369-1399 (Zobel, refs), but Nottbeck identifies 3 permutations of Assauwe in 1420, the first as Assouwen heerden, then in the index as either Assouwe, herde (Hirt) or, with the tantalising ‘?’, herde (Herde?), Assouwe, raising various points: Nottbeck is clearly unsure whether his ‘surname’(?) was Hirt or Herde, so perhaps he wasn’t even a herdsman in the first place. What pointers are there? 1) He is understood to have lived about 50 m from Karjavärava which did lead straight to a town pasture outside the city walls in the 2nd half of the 14th C; and 2) he is referred to in a transaction involving Hans Pipenbryncke deme knokenhouwer for a property that Assauwe used to own near smedeporte (smithsgate), or Harjuvärava, also a short distance away. Since knokenhouwer is MLG for butcher (lit. bone-hewer), it tallies with a relation between familiars. But nothing conclusive about that. Another issue is the designation of herde/heerde. It commonly meant cow-, sheep-, goatherd, etc., but so did a huge number of alternative spellings: hērde, herde, heerde, heirde, heyrde, hirde, hijrede, hijerde, hērdære and herder along with hȫdære, hȫder, hȫdere, hoeder, hoyder, hȫdesman, hǖdære and, ouf, hǖder, but no hodor. Dare I suggest that, for a pretty basic job, no-one really cared how it was spelled? Which leads on to the next question. Why no surname? Most Germanic names in the records are FirstName LastName. Assauwe was not. Does that mean surnames were simply rare or non-existent among native Estonians of the time? Did it imply inferior status? If so, where did he earn the money to buy relatively premium real estate? (during peak business periods, Russian traders would sleep in tents outside the walls) Could cattle-herding be a big money-spinner in those days? Or had he or his family simply lived there a long time? Or was the herde more of a herde manager, a city official delegating the chore to available laborers? There are two other possibilities: herde also meant flax fiber, akin to hēde (heide, heyde and heye) or tow, long used in caulking and rope-making, inevitable in any port town. Could this have been his trade? Or, last one, unlikely perhaps, but could herde be the then Estonian for pastor? Summing up: Assauwe may well have been the local herdsman, local in the sense of local to the city and its property-owning burghers, and property, as we see in Karja, could well mean cattle, so even if our Assauwe was but a lowly herder, he was also, in a sense, a banker and if enough people trusted him with a part of their fortune, Old Joe Assauwe having not just one but two locations – tower (brand) and yard, ‘fenced in area’ or lockup (Asso õu), in which he safeguards his clients’ capital (cf. Lat capitālis, ‘head of cattle’) – does not seem strange at all. Moving on, the name was temporarily switched to Bevermans Thurm (early 17th C), Buchaus Turm, after other locals of the time, then back. See also Bremeni torn.