International Haskell Family Soc

The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces

As it has been shown in Haskell Whence the Name it is believed that our family

descended from King Cnut’s Hurscarles they would therefore be skilled in the

use of weapons, and would have defended their villages and settlements from

attack, and the same maxim holds true today. In the books that I have

compiled about the military service of members of our family from earliest time

up until the present day I have attempted to discover their family background

and where they fit into the Haskell scheme of things, this is not always possible

as records were not made in ancient times, indeed the Royal Navy did not keep

records of ratings until 1853, although in some cases ships Muster Books are available.

Before 1660 in England there was no regular army and when soldiers were needed

the King would call on the nobles to muster their retainers, but by 1485 towns

and parishes had to provide “Parish Soldiers” whose weapons were kept in the

vestry of the churches, an early form of Militia, and the names were recorded on

the Muster Rolls. It may come as a surprise to realize that the regular British

army has only been in existences for just over 360 years. Thousands of records

of World War One soldiers were destroyed between 1919 and 1939, due to problems

of storage, and a further five million records were destroyed by fire during the Blitz

of 1940, thus making the task of research difficult.

When Haskell’s immigrated to the New World they found a similar form of Militia

in existence. All able bodied men between 16 and 60 were obliged to arm themselves

with modern weapons and hold themselves in readiness to repel attacks on

their colonies giving rise to the term “Minutemen”, the names of some of these

men are on record. This practise continued until 1775 when the Continental Congress

raised regiments for service during the American War of Independence. At the

cessation hostilities Congress disbanded all it troops except for a handful of men

who became the nucleus of the regular United States Army.

United States service records are somewhat easier to access so I have been able to

discover the much more detail of the family history of the men involved.

I hope that you will gain as much enjoyment in discovering more about our family

members as I have in compiling and editing these books. In the meantime

research continues, if you have further information on the service lives of

you relatives please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Peter P. Haskell

Lancing 2007

The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Vol. 1:

The United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

(P. P. Haskell, Ed.), 314 pp., cross indexed, illust., softbound.

The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Vol. 2:

The U. S. A., Part One 1625 - 1853,

(P. P. Haskell, Ed.), 143 pp.