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The apostrophe was first used by Pietro Bembo in his edition of De Aetna
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It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice.
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By the 18th century, apostrophe + s was regularly used for all possessive singular forms, even when the letter e was not omitted (as in the gate's height).
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The use of an apostrophe after the plural s (as in girls' dresses) was universally accepted until the mid-19th century
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The apostrophe is used in English to indicate what is, for historical reasons, misleadingly called the possessive case in the English language.
