Robert Skilton/Skelton was born around 1550 in Reigate, Surrey, and is believed to be the son of John Skilton (1490-1553) and Agnes Savage (1491-1558).
St Mary Magdalene Reigate Surrey
Robert’s father John married Agnes around 1539 and had two children in Reigate – Robert and Catherine ca 1540-1563 (married Thomas Heyse).
According to his possible probate entry in 1553 he was named as John Skelton, husbandman of Wood Hurst. ( Calendar of Wills and Administrations in the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon Now Preserved in the Probate Registry of Peterborough. Transcripts of Wills in Volumes 1-12, 12a-19.)
His wife Agnes Skelton nee Savage, died in 1558 in Reigate and her will in 1559 is available on Ancestry and mentions her husband John, son Robert, daughter Catherine and son in law Thomas Heyse. (London, England Wills and Probate 1507-1858).
John Skelton, poet laureate
John Skelton is believed to be (no proof!) the son of John Skilton / Skelton, poet laureate of Henry VIII and appears in British Chancery Records (Vol 2, Page 515, Bundle 69).
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions.
Henry VIII
John Skelton’s Wikipedia entry states that the poet was buried in Westminster Abbey 21 June 1529 (UK & Ireland Find a Grave, St Margaret’s Churchyard, Westminster Abbey). There are a lot of references to John on this page. He also appears in a woodcut image entry with the label “Skylton poyet”, in the book by R S Kinsman entitled ‘John Skelton, Early Tudor Lureate’.
This John Skelton senior also appears in a lengthy entry in the Dictionary of National Biography Vol 1-20, 22 (available here on Ancestry). He was the son of John Skelton (1420-1459) and Johanna Fenwick (1422-1553).
John Skelton senior (the poet) married Alice Skipworth (1465-1500) of South Ormsby, Lincolnshire around 1483.
Back to Robert Skelton…..
Robert married three times at St Mary’s Reigate, firstly to Katren (1540-1563) in 1563, with one child Elysabeth born in 1561, and secondly to Anne Savage (1545-1567) in 1566. Anne was most likely a relation of Agnes Savage, his mother.
Robert married a third time to Eleanor/Elynor Lashemor on 27 April 1568 at St Mary’s Reigate.
Reigate is a market town, and parish in Surrey, 22 miles south of London, with a population in 1880 of 3274.
The trade of the place is in agricultural produce, white sand, fullers’ earth, freestone, and hearthstone.
Reigate has a medieval castle and has been a market town since the medieval period.
Robert and Eleanor had eight children all born in Reigate, Surrey –
- Thomas b 1569 d 1616 Mercer of Reigate, married Rachell Lyse in 1599. Will.
- Robert b 1571 Reigate
- John b 1573 Reigate
- Richard b 1575 Reigate d 1641 Reigate
- Israel b 1577 Reigate d 1647 Betchworth, marr Elizabeth Harper and Jane Humphrey. Will held. Yeoman of Brockham
- Samuel b 1577 d 1655 Ludgate, London. twin of Israel, marr Katherine Comins 1604, Apothecary of St Martins, Ludgate. Will held.
- Alisse (Alice) b 1582 d 1613 Bermondsey
- Samothe b 1585 married Thomas Wood in 1604.
On the baptism of his twins Israel and Samuel, Robert was described in the parish register as ‘servant of the queen’.
St Andrews Holborn London
Elynor / Eleanor died in March 1605 and was buried at Reigate on 8 March 1605. The parish register reads “Eleanor, widow of Robert”.
According to some online family trees, Robert died in November 1636, and was buried at St Andrews, Holborn in London on 20 November 1636.
Apparently when Robert died he willed the sum of 100 pounds to the poor of his parish. It appears that when King Charles I became aware of this he ordered that the 100 pounds be returned to Robert’s family and that the Crown pay the gift to the poor.
Charles I of England
11 Jan , 1636 Charles 1st.–Order, made at S. P. held at Westminster, that the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields forthwith cause an assessment to be paid amongst the inhabitants of the said parish, for the repayment to Robert Skelton or his assigns the sum of 100£ with interest, which 100£ were in the year 1636 borrowed upon bond of the same Robert Skelton, for the relief of the poor of the said parish, then being visited exceedingly with the plague, by George Hulbert esq., Robert Shaw and Henry Strugnell churchwardens, and by Thomas Snelling then one of the collectors for the relief of the poor of the said parish; the order thus given for repayment of the 100£ with interest, being made by the Justices on information, that the widows of Messrs. Hulbert, Shaw and Strugnell had been arrested in respect of the debt so incurred by their late husbands. S. P. Book. Collection: Middlesex: – Rolls, Books and Certificates, Indictments, Recognizances, Coroners’ Inquisitions-Post-Mortem, Orders, Memoranda and Certificates, 1625-1667, vol. 3
