John Askin

John Askin was a fur trader, merchant, and official in Upper Canada. He was born in Aughnacloy, Northern Ireland, and according to family tradition the Askins were related to John Erskine, 23rd Earl of Mar, whose unsuccessful revolt in 1715 forced some of the family to move to Ireland from Scotland. Askin came to came to North America in 1758 and was a sutler with the British army at Albany, N.Y.

In the early 1760s he entered the western fur trade and formed a series of partnerships. In the mid 1760 he moved to Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Mich.) where he ran a trading store in the settlement, was commissary for the garrison, and farmed. In 1780 he again moved to Detroit (Mich.), where one year later he entered into partnership with merchants Robert Hamilton and Richard Cartwright. Askin’s part was to take care of the business of selling supplies to the Indian trade and the garrisons and buying furs at Detroit and the upper posts while Hamilton and Cartwright managed affairs at Fort Niagara (near Youngstown, N.Y.). This partnership was dissolved in 1784, but the same year Askin formed partnership with William Robertson, a Detroit merchant. In 1786 Askin joined the Miamis Company, a fur trading company consisted of Askin’s and five other companies. However, the animal population was declining and the Indians were in a state of more or less open warfare with the Americans which all resulted in continued drop of fur exports from Detroit.

Aware of the state of the fur business, Askin started to generate income from other sources. In 1788 he entered into the shipping business on the Great Lakes. He was also active in land speculations and has acquired large land holdings.

In 1802 Askin moved to Sandwich, Upper Canada, (today Windsor, Ontario), where because of his extensive lands he acquired the nickname the Count of Kent.