A friend on Facebook began posting about her resent interest in her family's history. That reminded me that with the death of both of my parents in the past year, I've neglected posting on my blog. So with some renewed energy, I am going to start back on my journey through my family's "religious" history with a Presbyterian Scots-Irish line.

 

 

Line 20

Edward AIKEN

IRISH OR SCOTS-IRISH

 

I’ve been dealing with Southern ancestry and am now returning to my New England ancestors. Edward Aiken was born in Londonderry, Ireland of Scottish ancestry, which of course makes him Scots-Irish. Further evidence of his ancestry is that he was connected, as you will see, with the Presbyterian Church. My source for this, puts his birth as 1618 so unless he married very late in life, he may have been the grandfather of the following children rather than the father.

Edward Aiken was born about 1716 in Londonderry, Ireland, his parents’ names being lost to history as are his death date and place.

He married a woman whose name has not been discovered.

The children of Edward Aiken were:

 

1.       John Aiken born about 1689 in Ireland and died 1 Dec 1750 in Chester, Rockingham, New Hampshire. He married Mary Karr born about 1700 and died after 1750.

2.      Samuel Aiken born about 1700 in Irland and died about 1688 in Chester, Rockingham, NH. He married a woman from the Young family who died in Chester, New Hampshire in 1797

3.      William Aiken born about 1702, died before 1736 in Ireland.  William was an educated clergyman.

 

Edward Aiken probably died sometime in the early 1700s.

 

Little is known of Edward Aiken. I am not sure where my source got her information on Edward but we can be fairly sure that Edward was among the people who were sent to Northern Ireland from Scotland by James I of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Ireland) to keep an eye on the rebellious Irish in the seventeenth century.  Many of the Scotch-Irish, including two of Edward’s sons, (a term that originated in the American colonies to distinguish them from the Catholic Irish American) became disenchanted with Ireland and migrated to the colonies.

This family was Presbyterian. Son, William Aiken was known to be not just a clergyman but a well-educated one too. It is likely that his brothers had a better than average education as well. This marks the Aikens as probably middle-class, although the protestant lower classes tended to teach their children to read as their version of the Bible would have been printed in English or Scotch rather than Latin as the Catholic Bible was at that time. The Presbyterians came from the reformed Protestantism movement in the British Isles, begun in Scotland by John Knox a follower of the Calvinist theology founded by John Calvin. The name of the church comes for the “Presbyterian” form of church government which is represented by an assembly of elders. Their theology is built on the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures and salvation through grace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. 

 

***SOURCES***

1. "History of Old Chester, From 1719 to 1869" by Benjamin Chase, 1869

2. http://hstsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ifetch2?/u1/texindices... Roots Web surname searches "CNIDR I search -cgi 1.20.06" Akin Family by Marci

3. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History