Askin, John Jr.

  • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Askin_Jr.
  • Wiki Biography:
    • John Askin Jr. (c. 1765 – 1 January 1820) was a British Indian Department officer and merchant active in Upper Canada and Michigan. He and his wife, Madelaine, are remembered as being instrumental in the invention of the Mackinaw jacket in 1811.
    • John Askin was born in c. 1765 in L’Arbre Croche. He was the son of Irish-born fur trader John Askin and his First Nations slave Monette. Like his father, John Askin Jr. was loyal to the British crown during a twenty-year period, from 1794 until 1815, as the allegiance of the Upper Great Lakes was being strongly contested between Great Britain and the young United States. Many First Nations were allied with the British, and the junior Askin joined them and fought against U.S. forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Askin tried to rally and advise the beaten Native Americans, but was subjected by the victorious U.S. commander, Anthony Wayne, to administrative detention. While Askin was detained, Wayne and the defeated Native Americans signed the Treaty of Greenville, relinquishing to the Americans much of the future state of Ohio.
    • In line with the diminished status of the British on the Upper Great Lakes after the Treaty of Greenville and Jay’s Treaty, young Askin retired to the Canadian side of what was becoming an international boundary. He accepted the King’s appointment as collector of customs at Amherstburg, Upper Canada, in 1801, and accepted further appointment as storekeeper for the Indian Department at Fort St. Joseph on St. Joseph Island in 1807. In the latter post, he took the substantial career risk of issuing more than forty heavyweight Hudson’s Bay point blankets in November 1811 to the fort’s impecunious commander, Captain Charles Roberts, accepting a scrip warrant in payment. John’s wife, Madelaine, and the other women of the fort sewed the blankets into the first Mackinaw jackets, which British Army soldiers used as greatcoats for winter fatigue duty.
  • Son to United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=238
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/245671512/john-askin