John Major Skinner , Lieut General

For an account of the life of John Skinner see 'Sketch of the Military Services of Lieutenant-General John Skinner and his Sons' published Stafford in 1863, 80pp; and 'A few Memorials of the Rt. Rev. Robert Skinner, D.D., Bishop of Worcester, 1663' published in 1866, about 65pages; both researched and written by his son Allan Maclean Skinner. These document were in the British Library, at Shelfmarks 10826.g.9 and 4905.aaa.42 respectively, in 2001.

The monument on the north wall of Heston Church reads: "As a soldier, he was distinguished for bravery and generosity. In his several relations of life, he was upright and sincere. Deservedly esteemed and deeply regretted by all who knew him".


From Pedigree E - Epitome of the 'Great Pedigree of the Chaplin and Skinner families' prepared by Alan Maclean Skinner QC in 1863:

Alfred the Great, King of England (871-901)

beget Edward the Elder (901-925) who

beget Edmund (940-946) who

beget Edgar (959-975) who

beget Ethelread the Unready (979-1016) who married in 1002 Emma, daughter of Richard 1, Duke of Normandy and

beget Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) but also Goda, who married Walter de Medantine, Count d'Amiens and

beget Rodulph, Earl of Hereford, Lord of Sudely and Toddington who

beget Harold, who

beget John de Sudely, who married Grace, daughter of Henry de Traci, Lord of Barnstaple and

beget William of Toddington called Tracy, one of the four knights who slew St Thomas a Beckett 29.12.1170 and

beget after a further 15 descents Margaret Tracy who married Thomas Clynton High Sheriff of Hereford 1568 and died December 1575

She had a daughter Mary who married Richard Skynner of Le Burtons and the Hill, Ledbury who died and was buried at Ledbury in 1608. The date of their marriage was 22 January 1575. Richard Skynner was descended (by 24 descents) from Sir Robert Skynnere, a Norman by birth, who came to England with William Duke of Normandy in 1066 and married the daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire (a Saxon).

Richard Skynner and his wife Mary:

beget after 6 descents Lieutenant General John Skinner who married Ann, daughter of John Maclean and his wife Florance of Inverscadle - descended from Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.


From 'The Chaplin and Skinner Families' December 1902 page 62 to 63:

THE SKINNER FAMILY

>> I N the year 1863, Mr. Allan Maclean. Skinner. Q.C., Recorder of Windsor, and some time County Court Judge of the Wolverhampton District, published an account of the family of SKYNNER or SKINNER, of Ledbury, his father's family, and traced the unbroken descent of his mother, Anne, daughter of John Maclean, from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. Mr. Allan Maclean Skinner, with the help of his adopted son and devoted friend, Clifton Newman Curtis, drew up various genealogical tables, notably a pedigree showing both his own descent from the Royal House of King Alfred and from Sir Robert Skynnere, a Norman who came to England with William the Conqueror, and the descent of his wife, Caroline Emily, daughter of the Rev. John Harding, from King Edward I. and St. Louis.
This pedigree is now in the possession of John Allan Cleveland Skinner, and in Pedigree E I have endeavoured to give a short epitome of the original, and to show in a simple manner how the marriage of Mr. Allan Maclean Skinner with Miss Caroline Emily Harding united the descendants of Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy, by her first marriage with the Saxon King Ethelred, and those by her second marriage with the great Canute, King of Denmark and of England, and conqueror of Norway.
Edmund Ironside, says a Saxon genealogist, had two sons, Edwin and Edward, and an only daughter, whose name does not appear in history because of her wilful conduct, seeing that she formed a most imprudent alliance with the King's Skinner, i.e., the Master of the Robes. The King in his anger banished the Skinner from England, together with his daughter. They both went to Normandy, where they lived on public charity, and had successively three daughters. Having one day come to Falaise to beg at Duke Richard's door, the Duke, struck with the beauty of the woman and her children, asked who she was. "I am," she said, "an Englishwoman of the Royal Blood." The Duke on this answer treated her with honour, took the Skinner into his service, and had one of his daughters brought up in the Palace. She was Arlotte, or Charlotte, the mother of the Conqueror.
Be this as it may, the tradition is preserved in the different branches of the Skinner family that they are descended from the maternal relations of the Conqueror, whom he brought forward, as history testifies, instead of his paternal relations, the latter having endeavoured to drive him from the throne of Normandy.
At the College of Arms at the 28th page of the 23rd Volume of MS. pedigrees in the handwriting of Robert Dale from I703 to 1713 Blanch Lion, Poursuivant Extraordinary, afterwards Richmond Herald, is the following pedigree, communicated to him in 1713 by William Skynner, Vicar of Sunbury.
"The name of Skynnere is a name in the Kyngdom of Ingland that came with the elegetematt William Duke of Normandey, who mayd conquest of thatt Kyngdom, the first of the name of Skynnere being a knight named Sir Robartt Skynnere, borne in Normandey, who for his good services done unto the Conqueror was made a free denneson in the foresayd kyngdom; he married in the Countey of Lincone unto the daughter and heayer of Sir Robartt Bollingbrocke, Knight of the Rase of Saxony, from him is descended 28 desenttes, whereof six wher Knights, they all of them lyvinge as gentellmen of name and sortte. The coat armour is quarterly. The first he beareth azure, a chevron or between three roebucks trepent, argent, horned or, by the name of Skynnere. The second he beareth sable, ten fleur de louses or, four in chief, three in fyoll, two in fesse, and one in base, by the name of Bolingbroke. Within a mantlett argent, dubled gules, one bowe helmet and tassetts proper, on the first a roebuck trepant argent horned or, by the foresaid name of Skynnere, on the second an unicorn's head coupé argent horned or, by the name of Bolingbroke.
Yours to command,
HAMLETT SONCKYE.

Transcribed literally from an ill written rude draught or pedigree in eight sheets of paper pasted together, at the top whereto is joined another sheet with an achievement of two coats and crests in colors.

ITA TESTOR,
ROB. DALE,
BLANCH LION,"

Mr. Allan Maclean Skinner in his pedigree points out that the heraldic distinction is a molette of eight points azure on a crescent or, and that in a woman's hand these two coats are blazoned, 1st pale of six pieces or and azure. Fegs ermine, two field argent, chief azure, two mullets or, pierced gules. <<

Note: In the British Museum there is the Skinner Chair. According to a note made by Effie Irene Ray-Jones (nee Pearce) this chair was bequeathed by the Rev. John Skinner, Vicar of Cannerton. It belonged to Dr Robert Skinner, Bishop of Buxton in 1636 (later Bishop of Worcester) and was used:
- by Prince Albert at the launching of the SS Great Britain in 1843
- by Edward Prince of Wales at the cutting of the first sod of the Royal Edward Dock in 1902
- by King George V at the Royal Show in 1913.

Allan Maclean Skinner found amongst his father's possessions the order from the Prince Regent for the restitution of Guadeloupe to France following the Peace Treaty signed in Paris on 13 May 1813; and a gold medal from HRH the Duke of York, sent on 1 July 1815, commemorating the capture of the island.

END

From PCC wills at the Family Records Centre (FRC):

SKINNER, John, Lieut-General Surry Nov 1827 670. Film PROB11 - 1733 Will proven 1827