Background
The son of John Gaskin, a leather-seller (1710–1766), and of Mabel his wife (1707–1791), he was born at Newington Green, London.
The son of John Gaskin, a leather-seller (1710–1766), and of Mabel his wife (1707–1791), he was born at Newington Green, London.
He was educated at a classical school in Woodford, Essex, and went to Trinity College, Oxford, in 1771.
He was also Rector of Stoke Newington and of Street Benet, Gracechurch. Foreign a long time, he was secretary to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. A street in Islington bears his name.
He proceeded Bachelor of Arts in 1775, Master of Arts in 1778, and Doctor of Divinity in 1788.
He was ordained deacon in 1774, when he became curate of Street Vedast, Foster Lane. He was then appointed to fill the vacant office of lecturer in the parish of Islington, a post which he occupied for forty-six years.
In 1778 he accepted the curacy of the parish of Stoke Newington. His first preferment was the rectory of Sutton and Mepal in the Isle of Ely.
This, however, in 1791 he exchanged for the living of Street Benet Gracechurch, in order to be on hand for fulfilling his duties as secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
He was employed on behalf by the society to visit and report on the mission schools and churches of the Scilly Islands. In 1797 he was further promoted to the rectory of Stoke Newington. He then took a prominent position in assisting church institutions in the western United States, and in 1823 acted as trustee of the funds collected for the infant church of Ohio.
He died on 29 June 1829, from a rapid succession of epileptic fits.
Gaskin was married in early life to Elizabeth Broughton, daughter of the Review Thomas Broughton, rector of Allhallows, Lombard Street, and of Wotton, Surrey.