English Origins
William Haskell was Churchwarden at the Church of St. Stephen in Charlton Musgrove, England in 1627 – 1628. He married Elinor Foule in 1610. They had seven children who were baptized in Charlton Musgrove, Somerset, England. The three sons, Roger (bp. 6 Mar 1613/14), William (bp. 8 Nov 1618), and Mark (bp. 8 Apr 1621) emigrated to Massachusetts. Most Haskells in the U. S. are descended from one of these three brothers. Roger married Elizabeth Hardy in 1639 and had ten children. William married Mary Tybott in 1643 and had nine children. Mark married Hannah Woodbury, the widow of James Patch, in 1658 and had two sons. William has the most descendants, Roger has the next most descendants, and Mark, with only two sons, has the fewest descendants.
Of the four daughters of William Haskell and Elinor Foule, only Joan emigrated to the New World. The only mention of Joan is in the will of her brother, Roger, in 1667: “I likewise give to my sister Joane a heifer as soone as the calfe is taken of.” Cecille remained in England and on 30 July 1637 she married Edward Cobe of Wincanton at the Penselwood parish church, Somerset. Their descendants, if any, are not known. Dorothy and Elizabeth are thought to have died young, either in England or on the voyage to New England; there is no further record of them.
Elinor/Ellin Foule’s maiden surname is variously reported as Foule, Frowde, or Cook. Contributors to the Haskell Journal of the Haskell Family Association prefer to use Foule, pronounced to rhyme with “goal”. Elinor’s first husband, William Haskell, Sr., died in 1630. Sometime after his death, and most likely in England, Elinor married John Stone, who had two sons from a previous marriage, John Jr., and Nathaniel.
Probably in the spring of 1635 or 1636, John Stone, Elinor, and three of her Haskell children (Roger, age 21, William 16, and Joan 6) sailed from England, most likely from Bristol, and settled in the “Basse River” section (also called the Cape Ann side, now Beverly) of Salem, Massachusetts. John Stone engaged in farming and fishing but also operated a ferry across the Basse River between the two settlements.
The youngest son, Mark, on 26 April 1635 was apprenticed by the Overseers of the Poor for Charlton Musgrove to John Whiting, a broadweaver of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, for a period of nine years. Sometime between the end of Mark’s apprenticeship and 30 Sept 1652, when he was fined by the Salem Court for “wearing broad-lace”, he had arrived in Massachusetts and settled in the Basse River section of Salem.
Haskell Genealogical Database
The Haskell Family Association (HFA) maintains a Haskell Family Tree of Descendants of William Hascall (1490-1542) of Fontmell Magna, Dorset, England for 14 generations. Living persons are listed as "Living.". Haskill and Hascall are common variations of the Haskell family name.
Please send any correction or additions to our current historian/genealogist, Richard K. Hascall, at genealogist@haskellfamily.org.
The Haskell DNA
DNA testing has linked present-day Haskells in North America to Haskell in England back to a common ancestor, William Hascall, who died before 1514. These results are described in two articles in the Haskell Journal, the first in Issue 89 (2013) and the second in Issue 93 (2014). These articles can be downloaded by clicking on the cover pages of these issues.
The Haskell Family Association administers a FamilyTree DNA project. You can learn more about this project and order your own DNA kit by going to
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/haskell-hfa/.
Mayflower Descendants
Nearly half of the original 102 passengers on the Mayflower did not survive the first winter in the Plymouth Colony. Yet, from this small group of surviving Mayflower passengers, it is estimated that over ten million of their descendants are alive today, many of whom are unaware of their Mayflower heritage. This group includes countless Haskells. The most well-known Haskell Mayflower connection is to George Soule, whose daughter, Patience Soule, married John2 Haskell, the son to Roger1 Haskell, in January, 1666/67. The Haskell Family Association has published a 435-page book entitled Mayflower Descendants of John Haskell and Patience Soule, which is described on the home page of this website, and which you can buy on Amazon by clicking the image of the book on the home page. However, the Roger1-John2 line is not the only Haskell line with a Mayflower ancestor. There are at least eleven other lines to Roger1 and at least three lines to William1 through the first six generations of Mayflower descendants. There are no such known lines to Mark1. Of course, you may still be a Mayflower descendant through a later female line. The cover story in Issue 105 of the Haskell Journal describes the Haskell connections to eleven different Mayflower passengers: John Alden, William Mullins, Isaac Allerton, William Bradford, Edward Doty, Thomas Rogers, Henry Samson, George Soule, Miles Standish, Richard Warren, and William White. You can read this article by clicking on the cover image of Issue 105.
Genealogical Resources
There are many other web resources for researching Haskell genealogy.
Good genealogy research sites for which you need to pay an annual fee include Ancestry.com - http://www.ancestry.com/ and the New England Historic Genealogical Society - http://www.newenglandancestors.org/.
Another good source is the Beverly, Massachusetts Genealogy Project. http://magenweb.org/Essex/Beverly/.
You can download many useful pdf files from the Internet Archive download site. The following three links are particularly interesting, and we have included the pdf files here.
The Haskell journal; a monthly magazine (1898) (pdf file) - also available on the Haskell Journal page of this website.
A Short Account of the Descendants of William Haskell of Gloucester, Mass. by Ulysses G. Haskell (pdf file).
Caleb Haskell’s diary. May 5, 1775-May 30, 1776. A revolutionary soldier’s record(1881).
Books
The Haskell Family Association has published several hardcover genealogy books. These can be purchased on the HFA BOOK ORDERS page of this website.
A classic history of the Haskell Family in America is Chronicles of the Haskell Family by Ira Haskell, 1943. This book can be purchased from Higginson Book Company. A very useful name index for this book has been produced by Wilfred Bow and is available here (pdf).
Also available from Higginson Book Company are:
The Haskell Family Anthology, Volumes I & II by W. A. Haskell.
The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Vol. 2: The U. S. A., Part One 1625 - 1853, Part 2: 1854-1866, by Peter P. Haskell, 138+696pp. 2010.
The following two books are available online:
A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May 1692, by James Savage, Boston, 1860-1862, 4 Volumes. Online Editions.
The Pioneers of Massachusetts, a Descriptive List Drawn from Records of the Colonies, Towns and Churches, and other Contemporaneous Documents, by Charles Henry Pope, Boston, 1900, 550 pages. Online Edition
The following files can be downloaded from the Members Only page on this website:
Haskell Genealogy and Family History in North America, is a CD prepared by David A. Haskell that preserves in digital format (pdf) the extensive researches and records of American Haskell genealogy and family history compiled by Marion S. Anderson during her twenty-year service as genealogist and historian for the Haskell Family Association. Documents preserved on this disk are of two types: (a) family group sheets which display the vital records of the parents and children of a single family; and (b) ancestor charts which display the line of descent of a particular person. HFA Members can download the contents of this CD from the Members Only site
Haskells of Deer Isle, Maine - Descendants of Mark and Jemimah (Tilton) Haskell is a CD prepared by David A. Haskell that contains two pdf files: Genealogyg and family history of the descendants of Mark and Jemimah (Tilton) Haskell, and Haskell burials in Deer Isle cemeteries. Both pdf files are available on the Members Only site.
Family Origins, by Harold N. Haskell, Barbados, B.W.I., 1951. HFA Members can download the contents of this 11 page brochure from the Members Only site.
Other Genealogical Societies
The Mayflower Society is open to descendants of those who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. See the Mayflower Descendants section above for information on Haskell Mayflower descendants.
DAR National Society – Daughters of the American Revolution: As one of the most inclusive genealogical societies in the country, the DAR has admitted over a million members since its founding in 1890. Any woman 18 years or older-regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background-who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, is eligible for membership.
NSSAR - National Society, Sons of the American Revolution: The SAR is a “lineage” society. This means that each member has traced their family tree back to a point of having an ancestor who supported the cause of American Independence during the years 1774-1783.
The Winthrop Society is open to all men and women of good character and proven descent from one or more passengers of the Winthrop fleet, or of others who settled in the Bay Colony and down east before 1634. A good source for identifying these immigrants is The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III available from AmericanAncestors.org.
The Federation of Genealogical Societies provides a state-by-state list of Genealogical Societies that have joined the Federation.
Genealogy Military Resources
The Genealogy Military Resources site provides a list of links to military resources.
For those interested in the Revolutionary War, the following site provides many useful links: https://www.archives.gov/research/military/american-revolution.
For those interested in the Civil War, the Post Civil War Military Orders site lists the major organizations for both sides.
Other useful Civil War sites are:
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database (National Park System) Click on Soldiers and type in Haskell for a list of 627 Haskell soldiers indexed.
Another good site is the Gettysburg Stone Sentinels. This site features photos and information on over 850 monuments and markers at Gettysburg along with farms, other buildings and terrain features. You can use the menus to search by army, state or type of monument, or explore the battlefield with interactive maps.
Shotgun’s Home of the American Civil War This site contains a wealth of information about the Civil War including a lot of information about the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Civil War Home Page This site contains lots of official records and images from both sides of the Civil War.
Other Genealogy Sites
Facebook Group for the Village of Charlton Musgrove, Somerset, England: www.facebook.com/groups/johnball.
Ancestors of Carey Haskell and more Haskell family history can be found on his website http://haskells.net/familytr.html.
Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet has lots of links.
More links can be found on these Library of Congress sites:
http://dir.genealogytoday.com/library_of_congress.html
http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/
http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/other.html
The Deer Isle - Stonington Historical Society website shows the site of our 2008 Reunion.
Mrs. Blizzard’s fifth grade class at Pinewood Elementary School in NY provided information on Ellis Island, which provided lots of links they found useful in doing their genealogy/family history projects.