Philip Skippon (1641–1691)

Sir Philip Skippon, FRS (28 October 1641 – 7 August 1691), of Foulsham, Norfolk, Wrentham and Edwardstone, Suffolk, was an English traveller, writer, diarist, landowner and MP.[1][2][3]

Life

Philip was born 28 October 1641 at Hackney, the surviving son of Major-General Philip Skippon of Foulsham, Norfolk, a distinguished professional soldier who commanded troops in the New Model Army during the Civil War,[4] most notably at Naseby.[5] His mother was Maria Comes, whom his father married in the Netherlands church in Frankenthal, Lower Palatinate in 1622.[6] Philip jnr was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded BA in 1660.[7] Skippon inherited substantially from his father,[8] succeeding him in 1661, and was admitted to Gray's Inn on 5 February 1662 – 1663.[9]

He then embarked on lengthy travels through Europe (Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Netherlands) between 1663 and 1666 with John Ray, the nonconformist naturalist, and his fellow pupils Francis Willughby and Nathaniel Bacon.[10] On their return Skippon wrote an account of their travels, concerning mainly topography, engines, antiquities, classical inscriptions (in which he was thoroughly proficient), buildings, and the like:[11][12] John Ray in 1673 dedicated the publication of his own account, which contained both his own and Willughby's botanical, zoological and naturalist observations, to Skippon, as being best able to vouch for the truth of what he wrote because he had been of his company when the observations were made.[13] At the end of April 1664, in Naples, Ray and Skippon took ship for Messina, to continue their expedition together to Sicily, leaving Willughby and Bacon to return north to Rome.[14]

Skippon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1667) and was knighted on 19 April 1675. A general diary from 1667 to 1677 survives, which includes an eye-witness account of the Battle of Sole Bay.[15] Skippon entered Parliament in March 1679 as the Member of Parliament for Dunwich. He chose not to stand for re-election in 1685 but took the seat again in 1689. Re-elected in 1690, he died in office in 1691,[1] and was buried at Kedington.

Family

Skippon married twice: first, in 1669, to Amy (died 1676), daughter and coheir of Francis Brewster of Wrentham Hall, Suffolk (where she was buried),[16][17] and secondly to Anne, the daughter of Sir Thomas Barnardiston, 1st Baronet of Kedington, Suffolk. By his will and codicil of 1688, written as from Edwardstone in Suffolk, he refers to his son and heir Philip, his two daughters Mary and Anne, and his sister Dame Susanna Meredith (wife of Sir Richard Meredith, 2nd Baronet of Leeds Abbey, Kent).[18] Mary receives, in addition to her settlement, a portrait of Major-General Skippon set in gold, various plate, five 20-shilling pieces of old gold, and selected books including Dr Burnet's History of the Reformation (two folios), Mr Cradock's book of Knowledge and Practice and Mrs Philips's Poems, and Cleopatra. Anne receives a portrait of Philip's second wife, her share of the plate, five gold pieces, a pair of bloodstone bracelets, and the books, toys and other things in "the girles clossett". Philip has the principal inheritance, is to have his cabinet of medals, and a chest of damask linen left to him by his grandmother Brewster. He appointed his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Barnardiston (the younger) and Sir Joseph Brand (of Edwardstone)[19] to be his executors, and Sir Thomas proved the will in December 1691.[20] Sir Joseph Brand is said to have married Mary Skippon.[21] The younger Philip Skippon (1675-1716) was MP for Sudbury.[22]

References
  1. P. Watson, 'Skippon, Sir Philip (1641-91), of Edwardstone, Suff.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament.
  2. D.W. Hayton, 'Skippon, Sir Philip (1641-91), of Wrentham and Edwardstone, Suff.', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (from Boydell and Brewer 2002), History of Parliament Online.
  3. T. Quarles, The History and Antiquities of Foulsham: In Norfolk (Joseph Cundall, London 1842), pp. 80-108 (Google).
  4. 'Skippon, Phillip: Parliamentarian soldier', in S.C. Manganiello, The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1639-1660 (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland; Toronto; Oxford, 2004), p. 497 (Google).
  5. I. Pells, 'Philip Skippon: The Norfolk Genesis of a Parliamentary General', Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society XLVII, Part 2 (2015).
  6. J.J. Howard (ed.), Miscellanea Genealogica et Topographica, New Series Vol. I (Hamilton, Adams & Co., London 1874), pp. 37-40, at pp. 38-39 (Google).
  7. "Skippon, Philip (SKPN660P)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  8. Will of Major-General Phillipp Skippon of Acton, Middlesex (P.C.C. 1660, Nabbs quire).
  9. J. Foster (ed.), The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 (Hansard, London 1889), p. 295 (Hathi Trust).
  10. "Philip Skippon (1641-91) Naturalist". Every Man's Companion: Or, An Useful Pocket-Book. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  11. P. Skippon, 'An Account of a Journey Made through part of the Low-Countries, Germany, Italy and France', in A. and J. Churchill (ed.), A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Some Now First Printed from Original Manuscripts, 6 vols (J. Walthoe, London 1732), VI, pp 359-736, and Index (Google)
  12. "Sir Philip Skippon". Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  13. J. Ray, Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological Made in a Journey through Part of the Low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France, with a catalogue of plants not native of England, found spontaneously growing in those parts, and their virtues (John Martyn, London 1673), front matter (Umich/eebo).
  14. Skippon, Account of a Journey, p. 609 (Google).
  15. C.M. Hood, 'An East Anglian Contemporary of Pepys: Philip Skippon, of Foulsham, 1641-1692', Norfolk Archaeology XXII Part 2 (1925), p. 147-89.
  16. J.J. Howard (ed.), Miscellanea Genealogica et Topographica, New Series Vol. I (Hamilton, Adams & Co., London 1874), pp. 37-40, at p. 39 (Google).
  17. Letter of Sir Philip Skippon to John Ray (from Wrentham), 1671', The Enys Collection of Autograph Manuscripts, "Sale: 28 September 2004, Lot 303", Bonhams.
  18. E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Vol. II (Author/Simmons and Kirkby, Canterbury 1782), pp. 481-82 (Google).
  19. Knighted in 1681, son of the MP who died in 1674, see P. Watson, 'Brand, Joseph (c.1605-74), of Tower Street, London and Edwardstone, Suff.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament Online.
  20. Will of Sir Philip Skippon of Edwardstone, Suffolk (P.C.C. 1691, Vere quire).
  21. F. Blomefield, ed. C. Parkin, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Volume VIII (William Miller, London 1808), p. 206 (Internet Archive).
  22. D.W. Hayton, 'Skippon, Philip (1675-1716), of Edwardstone, Suff.', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (from Boydell and Brewer 2002), History of Parliament Online.
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