John Akin, the founder of the family in America, was born in Scotland in 1663. He was one of the band of Quakers who fled to America to escape the persecutions their peculiar sect had to endure in Scotland under English rule on account of their refusal to take oath or bear arms. He arrived in 1680, and settled in Dartmouth, Bristol county, Massachusetts, and there married, 1687, Mary Briggs. They soon found that religious freedom with the Puritans meant freedom only for those who agreed with them in their religious belief. When persecutions again drove them from their homes, the greater number of the Akins went to the New Netherlands, where they were allowed freedom of conscience. The family rose to eminence in civil, social and political life, and descendants are still prominent there.
(II) David, son of John and Mary (Briggs) Akin, was born in 1689, died in 1779. He settled on "Quaker Hill," Pawling, Dutchess county, New York, a locality that has long been the family seat. He married, at Dartmouth, Massachusetts, 1711, Sarah Allen, born in 1692.
(III) Jonathan, youngest son of David and Sarah (Allen) Akin, was born in 1737, died in 1828. He was a man of affairs in Dutchess county in the vicinity of "Quaker Hill," where his death occurred. The civil list of the state enrolls him twice. Member of the state assembly, 1788-89, and 1791-92; delegate from Dutchess county to state constitutional convention, 1801. In 1788, under Aaron Burr, he was one of the delegates who voted against the constitution being ratified. He married, July 27, 1757, Lillias Ferris, of "Quaker Hill," born in 1736. died in 1813.
(IV) William, son of Jonathan and Lillias (Ferris) Akin, was born at "Quaker Hill," Pawling, Dutchess county, New York, June 13, 1769, died at Greenbush, Rensselaer county, New York, April 3, 1841. He removed to Rensselaer county where, in 1810, with two others who afterward retired, he purchased a tract of land one mile square from the Van Rensselaers, on which he founded the town of Greenbush, now the city of Rensselaer, where his descendants yet reside (1910). This purchase was first known as "Akin Mile Square." The village of Greenbush was laid out and incorporated, April 14, 1815. Mr. Akin donated the land on which was erected the Presbyterian church, although he remained loyal to the family faith and was a steadfast member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Mr. Akin married, December 25, 1797, Caroline Matilda, born November 14, 1778, died June 27, 1845, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Cary, who served as adjutant of the Fifth Dutchess County New York Militia, William Humphrey, colonel, during the revolutionary war. Children: Oliver, Frederick, George, Ebenezer, David, Helen Maria, Peter, Martha Taber and Caroline Matilda.
(V) Martha Taber, daughter of William and Caroline Matilda (Cary) Akin, married Jacob Van Benschoten Teller (see Teller VI).