| Notes |
- SAMUEL SKELTON
ORIGIN: Tattershall, Lincolnshire
MIGRATION: 1629 on the George Bonaventure
FIRST RESIDENCE: Salem
OCCUPATION: Minister. "And for that the propagating of the gospel is the thing [we] do profess above all to be our aim in settling this plantation, we have been careful to make plentiful provision of godly ministers ... One of them is well known to yourself, vizt., Mr. Skelton, whom we have the rather desired to bear a part in this work, for that we are informed yourself have formerly received much good by his ministry; he cometh in the George Bonaventure, Mr. Thomas Cox" [MBCR 1:386].
His preaching was the subject of scandalous rumors bruited about by JOHN and SAMUEL BROWNE, who took their eviction from New England badly, and did as much damage as they could to the reputation of all and sundry on their arrival in old England [MBCR 1:408-09].
In 1633 Skelton took exception to the fortnightly meetings of the ministers of the Bay, fearing "it might grow in time to a presbytery or superintendency, to the prejudice of the churches' liberties. But this fear was without cause" (or so Winthrop believed) [WJ 1:139].
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: When the Salem church was organized on 20 July 1629, Samuel Skelton was chosen as pastor [Perley 1:151-70]. As the first church founded in Massachusetts Bay, its organization and practices were of great interest to other Puritan ministers still resident in England, and John Cotton especially wrote to Skelton with some of his opinions [Larzer Ziff, "The Salem Puritans in the `Free Aire of a New World,'" Huntington Library Quarterly 20:373-84; David D. Hall, "John Cotton's Letter to Samuel Skelton," William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 22:478-85].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 (as "Mr. Sam[ue]ll Skelton") and admitted 18 May 1631 [MBCR 1:80, 366].
EDUCATION: Matriculated at Cambridge from Clare College, 7 July 1608; B.A. 1611-2, M.A. 1615 [Venn 4:83; Morison 400].
OFFICES: Council member, 30 April 1629 [MBCR 1:361]. Given authority with Mr. Samuell Sharpe to continue the plantation in the event of Mr. Endicott's death, 17 April 1629 [MBCR 1:395].
ESTATE: On 3 July 1632 Mr. Samuel Skelton was granted two hundred acres about three miles from Salem, also one acre of land on which his house stood, and ten acres more in a neck of land abutting on the south river, also two acres more of ground in Salem [MBCR 1:97].
An accounting of Massachusetts Bay Company's dealings with Skelton has been preserved [EIHC 13:146-49].
The Court of Assistants held at Cambridge, 5 June 1638, being a quarterly court, ordered, with the consent of Mrs. Baggerly, that the increase of Mr. Skelton's cattle should be divided according to his will, and that the goods and household stuff which belongs to the three eldest children should be divided by some of the church in Salem and committed to the church of Salem [MBCR 1:232].
On 8 March 1649 Samuel Skelton sold to John Porter "one neck of land within the bounds of Salem lying between Crane River and Woolaston's River ... reserving unto the said Samuell Skelton threescore acres of the said neck" [ELR 1:8]. On 2 June 1652 "Robert Sanford of Boston ... & Elizabeth his wife" sold to John Porter of Salem, yeoman, "all those our twenty acres of upland & meadowing" in Salem [ELR 2:25]. In a deed acknowledged 18 May 1655 "John Marsh & Susanna my wife [and] Nathanyell Felton & Mary my wife" sold to John Porter of Salem, yeoman, "all those our forty acres of upland & meadow" in Salem [ELR 2:33]. On 30 March 15 Charles II [1663] "[w]hereas John Porter, son of John Porter Sr. of Salem ..., yeoman, about fourteen years since, by order of said John Porter Sr. his father, did purchase the farm of the late Reverend Samuell Skelton, late pastor to the Church of Christ in Salem, aforesaid, commonly called & known by the name of Skelton's Neck, of Samuell Skelton, son & heir of the said abovementioned Samuell Skelton, being two hundred acres ..., the said John Porter Sr. having also purchased the right & interest of the three daughters of the said Samuell Skelton Sr. ... I the said Samuell Skelton having received" £20 from "the said John Porter Sr. by the hands of John Brackenbury of Charlestown, mariner, whom I appointed to receive the same," acquit John Porter of all obligations under his note of 13 May 1659 [ELR 2:71]
(In 1868 William P. Upham traced the early history of the house of Samuel Skelton [EIHC 8:255-56].)
BIRTH: Baptized Coningsby, Lincolnshire, 26 February 1592/3, son of William Skelton [NEHGR 52:357; Venn 4:83].
DEATH: Salem 2 August 1634 [WJ 1:164].
MARRIAGE: Sempringham, Lincolnshire, 27 April 1619 Susanna Travis, baptized Horbling, Lincolnshire, 11 September 1597, daughter of William Travis [NEHGR 52:349]; died Salem 15 March 1630/1.
"Upon the eighteenth day of March came one from Salem and told us that upon the fifteenth thereof there died Mrs. Skelton, the wife of the other minister there, who, about eighteen or twenty days before, handling cold things in a sharp morning, put herself into a most violent fit of the wind colic and vomiting, which continuing, she at length fell into a fever and so died as before. She was a godly and an helpful woman, and indeed the main pillar of her family, having left behind her an husband and four children, weak and helpless, who can scarce tell how to live without her. She lived desired and died lamented, and well deserves to be honorably remembered" [Dudley 82].
CHILDREN:
i SARAH, bp. Sempringham 12 August 1621 [NEHGR 52:349]; bur. there 27 August 1621 [NEHGR 52:349].
ii SAMUEL, bp. Tattershall 8 January 1622[/3] [NEHGR 52:353]; possibly the Samuel Skelton who appears in Tattershall by 1644 with wife Margaret [NEHGR 52:354-55].
iii SUSANNA, bp. Tattershall 3 April 1625 [NEHGR 52:353]; m. (1) by 1646 John Marsh (eldest child b. Salem 8 July 1646); m. (2) by 1685 Thomas Rix (in her will of 3 November 1685 "Susannah, the relict of Thomas Rix late of Salem deceased, and formerly the relict of John Marsh deceased of Salem," bequeathed land given to her "by the last will and testament of the said John Marsh my first husband" [Snow-Estes 2:207]).
iv MARY, bp. Tattershall 28 June 1627 [NEHGR 52:353]; m. by about 1646 Nathaniel Felton ("Nathanyell Felton" admitted to Salem church 13 August 1648; John, son of Nathaniel Felton, bp. 3 September 1648; Ruth, daughter of Nathaniel Felton, bp. 29 October 1648 [SChR 13, 22]).
v ELIZABETH, b. Salem about 1630; m. by 1652 Robert Sanford [ELR 2:25] (eldest known child b. Boston 5 December 1655 [BVR 50]).
ASSOCIATIONS: ALICE BEGGARLY, also known as Alice Daniels, was in some manner related to Samuel Skelton, as she had control of his estate for some time after his death.
COMMENTS: On 8 April 1629 the settlement of Mr. Francis Higginson and Mr. Samuel Skelton was discussed by the Company men and it was agreed that the ministers should receive the same conditions as Mr. Bright (Higginson receiving £10 more a year because he had eight children) [MBCR 1:37f; EIHC 13:143-46].
On his 1630 arrival in New England, Winthrop's vessel was greeted by several ships, one containing Mr. Endicott, Mr. Skelton and Capt. Levett [WJ 1:30].
In a detailed letter to John Winthrop in 1635, Alice Daniell accounted for her struggle to settle and conserve the estate left by Mr. Skelton. She further alluded to the possibility that his will might be disanulled [WP 3:186]. On 8 August 1638 Hugh Peter wrote to John Winthrop, enquiring of "Mrs. Beggerly's, or rather Mr. Skelton's house, which is now falling to the ground if something be not done" [WP 4:51].
In 1632
A maid servant of Mr. Skelton of Salem, going towards Sagus, was lost seven days, and at length came home to Salem. All that time she was in the woods, having no kind of food, the snow being very deep, and as cold as at any time that winter. She was so frozen into the snow some mornings, as she was one hour before she could get up; yet she soon recovered and did well, through the Lord's wonderful providence [WJ 1:118].
In 1939 Nora E. Snow published an account of the family of Samuel Skelton which assigned to him another wife, prior to Susanna Travis, and two sons with that wife, Benjamin and Nathaniel [Snow-Estes 2:214]. She reached this incorrect conclusion by deciding that the tentative entries for Benjamin and Nathaniel Skelton in Savage must have been real people and must have been sons of Samuel [Savage 4:103]. Savage, in turn, was misled by Felt, who included men of those names in his list of first settlers of Salem, giving the first appearance of Benjamin as being in 1639 and of Nathaniel as being in 1648 [Felt 1:170]. In both cases Felt had misread entries in the Salem church records for baptisms of children of Benjamin and Nathaniel Felton [SChR 17, 22]. Skelton Felton, a great-grandson of the Rev. Samuel Skelton, might have appreciated the humor of the situation.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1875 W.P. Upham published a number of "Papers Relating to the Rev. Samuel Skelton," most of which concerned themselves with the agreement between Skelton and the Massachusetts Bay Company [EIHC 13:143-52]. In 1898 and 1899 E.C. Felton published a lengthy article containing the results of extensive research in English records [NEHGR 52:347-57, 53:64-71]. [1]
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1593 - 1634 (~ 41 years)
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