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Asken is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Asken family once lived in the township of Heskin, which is in the parish of Eccleston, near Chorley in Lancashire. The surname Asken belongs to the large category of Anglo-Saxon habitation names, which are derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.
The surname Asken was first found in Lincolnshire, where they held a family seat from very early times. Later migration found them in Northern Ireland in the province of Connacht were the name was frequently confused with the name Waters which was also an Anglicization of the Gaelic O'hUiscin.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Asken research. Another 76 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1163, 1618 and 1804 are included under the topic Early Asken History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Asken family name include Heskin, O'Heskin, Askin, Askyn, Askins, O'hUiscin and others.
More information is included under the topic Early Asken Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Asken surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Robert Askyn, who came to Virginia 1635; Sarah Askin, who came to Pennsylvania in 1773; John Askin, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1806; and Henry Askin, who came to New York in 1823..