Source Text:

Visible excerpt (book sourced many times online)

1. Thomas Skidmore (otherwise Scudamore or Scidmore) was born at Mayshill in Westerleigh Gloucestershire, probably in the spring of 1605, and died at Fairfield Connecticut, on or just previous to 31 October 1684. He was the son of Richard Skydmore, a carpenter, who went for a time to Westbury-on-Trym (now a part of metropolitan Pristol) some 12 miles west of Westerleigh. Richard and Anne (Agnes) Lawrence, his parents, were married at Holy Trinity church in Westbury-on-Trym on 4 September 1604....

323.
William Scudamore had died before 30 November 1615 when the administration of estate was given to his son John Scudamore at Gloucester...

Note: From http://www.deloriahurst.com/deloriahurst%20page/5007.html
A claimed excerpt:
According to Warren Skidmore's book "Thomas Skidmore " Thomas was probably baptised in the church of St James the Great in 1605 but the parish register and the Bishop 's transcript were both lost. But his parents were known to have returned for a time to Westerliegh where he was likely baptised. He met and married Ellen about the year 1626 but the marriage is not found in the register at Westbury-on-Trym. She is probably the sister of Daniel Whitehead. The Whiteheads are closely connected to the Skidmores. The work of Warren Skidmore includes biographical sketches of the 414 known male descendants of Thomas Skidmore who were married and heads of families by 31 Dec. 1850. After that date census records are reasonably easy to trace the men who married afterwards. Pages 3 through 9 give the important comings and goings of Thomas and his three wives.



THOMAS SKIDMORE (alias SCUDAMORE or SCIDMORE) was born at Mayshill in
Westerleigh, Gloucestershire, probably in the spring of 1605, and died at Fairfield, Fairfield County,
Connecticut, on or just previous to 31 October 1684. He was a son of Richard Skydmore, a
carpenter, who went for a time to Westbury-on-Trym (now a part of metropolitan Bristol) some 12
miles west of Westerleigh. Richard and Annes [Agnes] Lawrence, his parents, were married at Holy
Trinity Church in Westbury-on-Trym on 4 September 1604. William Scudamore, the paternal
grandfather of the young Thomas, lived on until 1615 at Westerleigh, but his maternal grandfather,
Richard Lawrence, a stonemason at Westbury-on-Trym, had been buried at Holy Trinity on
Christmas Day 1603. The ancestry of William Scudamore, the grandfather, will be noted in an
appendix to this book.

The christening of Thomas Skidmore is not found in the printed register of Holy Trinity, but his
parents are known to have returned for a time to Westerleigh. It is likely that the young Thomas was
baptized there in the church of St. James the Great in 1605 but the parish register and the Bishop’s
Transcript for that year are both lost. He was taken back to Westbury-on-Trym as an infant where
his father died soon after. Richard Skydmore was buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity on 25
November 1606.

Little is known of the childhood of Thomas Skidmore. His mother married John Cooke as her
second husband on 27 September 1608 at Westbury-on-Trym, and the register shows that the
Cookes had eight children born there between 1609 and 1625. Such evidence as we have suggests
that he did not live with his mother and stepfather, but that his youth was spent largely back at
Westerleigh with his grandfather and (in particular) with his bachelor uncle Thomas Skidmore. At
one or both of these places he had some formal schooling for he could read and write. He also
learned the art of black-smithing possibly from his uncle John Skidmore who had a smithy on Cheap
Street in Bath, Somerset.

He met and married his first wife Ellen about the year 1626 but the marriage is not found in the
register at Westbury-on-Trym, and the Bishop’s Transcript for Westerleigh for this year is also
missing. Nothing certain has been learned of her family, but it seems likely that her family name
was Prigg. Their eldest son was born about 1627 according to our estimation based on a subsequent
deposition in Connecticut. Sometime after the birth of his son Thomas Skidmore acquired a
leasehold from Thomas Roberts. Roberts was lord of the manor of Westerleigh and he leased a
messuage with an orchard and a garden on Westerleigh Street in Westerleigh to run for 99 years if
Thomas Skidmore, his wife Ellen, or their son Thomas Skidmore should live so long. The lease was
terminated at the death of the last survivor among them. It is possible that this leasehold was the
same as the one of a similar description on Westerleigh Street held by his bachelor uncle Thomas
Skidmore.

Only one mention is found of Thomas Skidmore, the nephew, in the Court Book of Westerleigh
(which still survives in the Bristol Record Office) for the years from 1625 to 1653. On 22 March
1630/1 Thomas Skidmore, Senior, and Thomas Skidmore, Junior, uncle and nephew beyond any doubt, are among the men of Westerleigh who were present at a sitting of the manorial court (a view
of frankpledge) and were fined severally 6d to pay the expenses of the court.
Nothing more is known of the younger man until 10 June 1636 when we find him at Boston, Suffolk
County, Massachusetts. On that day Governor John Winthrop wrote to his son John Winthrop,
Junior, who was then engaged in settling what is now Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut.
Part of the letter deals with supplies sent out to the new plantation from Massachusetts on May 30th.
Along with a cargo of dry provisions the elder Winthrop had sent six cows, four steers, and a bull
and he writes to his son John that “I left it to James and Thomas Skidmore to send such as might be
fittest both for travel and for your use.” This letter has sometimes been interpreted to mean that
Thomas Skidmore was acting as an agent for the Winthrops in England, but the context makes it
certain that the supplies were shipped from the Boston area. James is not identified (he is not a
Skidmore) but was some other familiar of the Winthrops. He may have been the Christian Indian
with no surname called James who is mentioned later as a servant to John Winthrop, Junior, at New
London.

Thomas Skidmore went back to England soon after. On 22 February 1637/7 he was appointed coadministrator (with Joan, the widow of his uncle John Scudamore of the city of Bath) of his bachelor
uncle Thomas at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. He was, with his cousins at Bath, an heir to
the estate. A year later on 11 March 1637/8 his son Richard was christened at St. James the Great
in Westerleigh. This is the only child of Thomas and Ellen found in the surviving Bishop’s
Transcripts of Westerleigh. These copies from the lost parish register were sent up every year to the
bishop at Gloucester, but most years in the 1630s are also lost.

Thomas Skidmore made yet a third trip (his last) back across the Atlantic resolved this time to stay.
He purchased a house and lot at Cambridge, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, from Abraham Morrell
soon after arriving back in New England. In 1635 William Wood wrote in New England’s Prospect
of Cambridge: “This is one of the neatest and best compacted Towns in New England having many
fair structures with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants most of them are very rich,
and well stored with cattell of all sorts; having many hundred Acres of ground paled in with one
generall fence, which is about a mile and a halfe longe, which secures their weaker Cattle from the
wild beasts. On the other side of the River lieth all their medow and Marsh-ground for Hay.”

On 25 June 1640 as Thomas Scudamore he executed a power of attorney in the office of Thomas
Letchford, an attorney, in Boston. In it he names “my much respected friends Henry Hazzard of
Bristol, mariner, and William Prigg, yeoman, of Westerleigh” as agents to sell his messuage on
Westerleigh Street for £50. Hazzard was given the first option to buy the lease. He was a member
of the Society of Merchant Venturers at Bristol and the master of the Sampson which made several
crossings to New England. Thomas Skidmore had no doubt become well acquainted with Hazzard
on his trips across the Atlantic (presumably on the Sampson) and trusted him to execute his
commissions in England. With a part of the £50 received from the sale Hazzard was to arrange the
“passage and transportation of my said wife and our children to this country of New England.” The
rest of the money was to be spent for “such commodities .. as by my letters of advice or other
direction I shall warrant him” to be sent over to Massachusetts. This sum was as much as a
prosperous yeoman was likely to see in a single year, while a husbandman accounted himself lucky
if he earned £20.

William Prigg, the other agent named in his power of attorney, was probably the father of his wife Ellen. William Prigg, a yeoman, owned a messuage adjoining that of his uncle Thomas Skidmore
on Westerleigh Street, and the Prigg family would certainly have been well-known to his nephew
Thomas Skidmore. His power of attorney points up some truths about the migration to Massachusetts in the period.

Most of the emigrants to New England paid for the passage of themselves and their families. This
was in contrast to the state of affairs in the Chesapeake colonies where most of the settlers came as
indentured servants. The leaders of the great migration to Massachusetts actively discouraged
servants or emigrants of humble means. Encouraged were men who had engaged in some skilled
craft or trade before leaving England. Substantial artisans accounted for 60% of the settlers in New
England, a far greater percentage than in Virginia where it has been estimated that 75% came as
indentured servants. Governor Winthrop wrote to his son that “people must come well provided,
and not too many at once.” Thomas Scudamore fit the New England ideal reasonably well except
that he was not a truly “godly man” (by which Puritan was meant) from East Anglia.

His lease at Westerleigh was purchased by William Prigg of Rodford in Westerleigh, the other
attorney, who bequeathed it on 22 March 1643/4 to his son Samuel Prigg. Ellen Skidmore made the
difficult trip across the Atlantic with her children soon after, no doubt on Hazzard’s Sampson, and
a son John was born to them at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 11 April 1643.
Thomas Skidmore’s home lot at Cambridge stood on a triangular plot between what was then Creek
Lane and Wood (now Boylston) Street. Today it faces Harvard Square and is occupied by a block
of commercial shops serving Harvard University. His home-lot is no. 28 on a map and an aerial
view of Cambridge printed opposite page 192 in Samuel Eliot Morison’s The Founding of Harvard
College (1935).

In 1643 Thomas Skidmore became one of several associates who undertook to settle Nashaway
Plantation (now Lancaster) in Worcester County, Massachusetts, although he himself never settled
there. On 12 June 1645 he and seven others (Stephen Daye, John Prescott, Herman Garrett, John
Hill, Isaac Walker, John Cowdall, and Joseph Jenks) petitioned Governor Thomas Dudley and the
General Court for a bridge across the Sudbury River, as “we the said petitioners do find it utterly
impossible to proceed forward to plant [at Nashaway] except we have a convenient way made for
our transportation of our cattle and goods over Sudbury River and Marsh.” On 3 October 1645,
Thomas Skidmore (with John Hill, John Davis, Samuel Bitfield, and Mathew Barnes) signed another
petition relative to the laying out of home lots in the proposed plantation. The £20 granted by the
magistrates had not been a sufficient inducement for the men living near the Sudbury to finish the
bridge. After John Prescott and his family nearly drowned in fording the river the project
languished.

Most of the original associates were workers in iron and it is obvious that they hoped to improve
their lot by means of the valuable ore deposits at Lancaster. Governor Winthrop notes that “the
persons interested in this plantation, being most of them poor men, and some of them corrupt in
judgment [that is, not of the Puritan persuasion], and others profane, it went very slowly so that in
 two years they had not three houses built there and he whom they had called to be their minister left
them for their delays.” Thomas Skidmore seems to have abandoned his interest in 1645 and he is
not mentioned among the proprietors after that date.

On 1 June 1646, preparatory to removing to Connecticut, he sold his house and lot at Cambridge to
Henry Dunster “with rights and privileges thereunto belonging together with about half a rood
adjoining.” Dunster had been president of Harvard College since 1640. On the day following he
filed a suit at Boston to force Samuel Bitfield (1602-1660), a hooper and his associate at Nashaway,
to accept executorship on the one-sentence will of Samuel Cromes, deceased. Cromes’ will had
directed Bitfield to “take my goods and pay my debts and take the remainder to himself.” Thomas
Skidmore must have been a creditor and he probably collected this debt as the court decided that this
was a lawful will.

The Skidmores joined Governor Winthrop, Junior, almost immediately thereafter at what is now
New London, New London County, Connecticut. Reverend Thomas Peters wrote to Winthrop on
29 June 1646 from New London that “we shall be about 50 souls at the arrival of Goodman
Skidmore whereof 30 will be infants so that we may call it an infant plantation, sine tropo.” The
town was then called Pequot or Nameag by the settlers, but was later renamed New London in the
mistaken belief that it would become a great commercial center because of its deep harbor.
Thomas Skidmore had just arrived when Uncus, the local Indian chief, committed a frightening
breach of the peace. He and about 300 of his tribe descended on a hunting party of Englishmen and
friendly Indians from the town who were poaching (in his view) on his private reserve. The settlers
were chased back to town and an Indian village was destroyed. The English suffered minor losses;
Winthrop some wampum, Reverend Peters a hat and a cloak, and several men lost skins to the
marauders. Some cattle were driven away but were later returned to the townsmen.

About 15 September 1646 the inhabitants of New London framed a petition to the Commissioners
of the United Colonies (who were in nominal charge of Indian affairs) with the details of the
molestations; Tho: Skidmore is the first signature of the seven names underwritten. The
commissioners summoned Uncus to a meeting in September 1646 at New Haven. He blandly denied
all the charges brought against him except frightening the women and children, and for this he
apologized. He was let off with a reprimand. The commissioners later dealt more harshly with
Uncus after further outbursts.

Although the settlers went to New London in 1646 house lots were not granted there until some
years later. That of Thomas Skidmore was entered on 5 October 1649 when by a general vote of
the town he was given six acres for a home lot at the south end of Cary Latham’s lot, two acres of
salt meadow lying on the south side of Isaac Willey’s meadow at Mamacock, as well as two more
acres above his home lot. The meadow at Mamacock stood on the neck where Fort Trumbull was
subsequently built. He recorded an earmark for his cattle about the same time.

Nicholas Davison of Charlestown, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, wrote to John Winthrop at New
London on 29 July 1648 asking him to collect small debts from Thomas Skidmore, Daniel Finch,
and Robert Bartlett on behalf of his client Rebecca Glover of London. Thomas Skidmore must have
been back to Massachusetts on business just previous to this date for Davison writes that “I thought
Thomas Skidmore would not have gone away when he was here before he had satisfied me.”
It was at New London in this period that Edward Higby married Jedidah, the daughter of Thomas
Skidmore. To what or to whom Jedidah owed her distinctive Christian name is unknown; the
Biblical Jedidah is mentioned only once in the Old Testament (2 Kings 22:1) as the mother of King Josiah. Whatever the source Jedidah became a uniquely Skidmore name and every subsequent use
of it in New England can seemingly be traced back to the posterity of Thomas Skidmore.

On 6 September 1649 Skidmore and Higby were defendants in a suit for slander tried at Hartford.
The plaintiff was James Wakely who asked for £20 in damages. His suit had only a token success
for the court allowed only 2d. Wakely naturally was not satisfied and on 6 December 1649 he
brought a new suit against Skidmore alone for £17 10sh in debt and damages; he was now identified
as an attorney for Stephen Daye of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daye was a locksmith turned printer
in New England and had been one of the associates in the Nashaway project; possibly his claim
against Skidmore stemmed from that venture. Daye is best known for printing the Bay Psalm Book,
the first book printed in New England, but he had been arrested at Boston in 1643 “for his
defrauding several men.” No testimony survives from the trial but the jury found for Daye to the
extent of £15 10sh. This sum Thomas Skidmore paid in April or May of 1650 after he had removed
to Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and a receipt was duly entered in the deed books of Middlesex
County, Massachusetts.

The action in the first suit may have piqued Higby into leaving New London. The day after the trial
he rashly sold his house and six acre lot there to Jarvis Mudge “upon consideration of five bushels
of wheat to be paid me and a dog.” His father-in-law apparently could not dissuade him from this
foolish act for Thomas Skidmore “his hand” was a witness to the deed.

Thomas Skidmore and Edward Higby are both said to have been active in coastal trading along the
Connecticut shoreline in this period. No evidence has been found to support this claim for
Skidmore, but in 1649 Higby was charged at New Haven for shooting a pig at Branford Harbor. It
had come to the waterside to feed while Higby and two men of his crew were mending their boat
on the beach. In 1654 Higby bought a much larger boat, moved to Huntington, Long Island, and
made several trips to the West Indies.

Thomas Skidmore followed his daughter and Higby to Stratford by 1650, and remained in the town
for most of the decade that followed. An undated list of owners of the fence about the common field
at Stratford probably dating from about 1650 lists Thomas Scidmore with 12 rods 3 feet. His
daughter Dorothy Skidmore married Hugh Griffin here on 20 June 1652 and it was probably at
Stratford that his first wife Ellen died. He was still at Stratford in 1659 but in November 1660 he
sold “all my accommodation in Stratford” to Alexander Bryan of Milford for £60; he was already
at Fairfield in the same county when the deed was signed. His name is still on the land at Stratford
where Skidmore Hill near Negro Brook at Oronoque survives as a placename.

Jedidah Skidmore, the first wife of Edward Higby, died at Huntington about 1658. Higby was now
the captain of a boat doing an extensive business with the West Indies. In 1660 his boat was long
overdue and presumed lost, and on May 12th the town court called out his will for probate. Higby
had married Lydia Smith as his second wife and the four children that he had by Jedidah were taken
from her. They were given over to the custody of Thomas Skidmore, Junior, their uncle, who was
to have the “disposing” of them until they came of age. Fortunately Higby eventually turned up
safely soon after and gave up the sea as a career.

Thomas Skidmore accumulated a number of tracts both by purchase and town meeting grants at
Fairfield. It was here that he married his second wife Joanna, the widow of Nathaniel Baldwin who had died in 1658. She had seven children by her two previous husbands, four by Richard Westcott
and three by Baldwin. Thomas Skidmore seems to have been given the administration of the estates
of both of these gentlemen. As early as 14 February 1664/5 John Weed of Stamford (who had
married Joanna Westcott) receipts to his “father-in-law [stepfather] Thomas Skidmore” for her share
of her father’s estate. This was the first in a long series of documents at Fairfield settling the
Westcott and Baldwin affairs as his stepchildren came of age.

On 19 June 1667 Joanna Skidmore (1612-1667) made a will at Fairfield in which she describes the
covenant made between herself and Thomas Skidmore at the time of their marriage. They had
agreed that she would keep £20 of her estate “at her dispose” and to this was to be added another
£20 if she should die before her husband. She had spent £2 and she left the remaining £38 to be
divided equally among her seven children. Her sons John and Daniel Westcott were named
executors and were to have the improvement of these legacies until her other children came of age
or married. William Ward and John Burr were named overseers; Ward and Josiah Harvey were
witnesses. Joanna was able to write, at least in a small way, for her will is signed “I-oa. Sk.”
Her will was not recorded until February 1677/8, but Joanna Skidmore seems to have died soon after
it was signed in June 1667. She was attended in her last illness by Governor Winthrop, Junior, who
was in addition to his other talents the most sought after physician in New England. Still preserved
is his case book in which he made brief notes on his patients and prescriptions. From this we find
that at the time of her last illness Joanna was aged 55 and the elder sister of Ann (who lived on until
1682) who had married Robert Sanford (1615-1676) of Hartford by 1643. Their parentage remains
to be discovered. They were the stepdaughters (not, as is frequently said, the daughters) of Jeremy
Adams (1604-1683).

After the death of his second wife Thomas Skidmore went to Huntington on Long Island, across the
Sound from Fairfield, Connecticut. From this time until at least 1682 he maintained
“accommodations” in both towns and commuted back and forth between them with regularity, an
easy trip by boat.

He went next, by way of Huntington, to East Hampton, Long Island, at the other end of Suffolk
County where he had the grant of a house and lot on the north side of the parsonage lot on condition
that he work as blacksmith in the town for six years. This grant (which styled him an “inhabitant
of Huntington”) was dated 12 February 1668/9. He had left East Hampton by 6 March 1670/1 when
he was the defendant in a suit for debt and damages brought by Thomas Barker of East Hampton at
the Court of Sessions. The defendant is once again called a resident of Huntington and “it appearing
to the court that by reason of sickness the defendant is necessarily hindered from making his
appearance, the court refers the trial of this action to the Court of Session to be held at Southold next
June.” The same lot was granted on 11 May 1671 to Thomas Smith, another blacksmith, who also
did not seem to be impressed with his prospects at East Hampton or at his accommodation. He left
in 1672.

Thomas Skidmore returned to Huntington, Long Island, where his son Thomas had settled before
him many years previously. There has been considerable confusion between the Thomas Skidmores
at Huntington, and much has been attributed to Thomas, Senior, which were in fact accomplishments
of his son. Moreover a grandson of the same name also came of age about this time to still further
confuse identifying all three of these men.

Thomas Skidmore, Senior, remained at Huntington until 22 January 1672 when (conveniently
identified as a blacksmith) he sold all of his accommodation there, his six acre home lot, his house
and shop, and eight acres of meadow on Santepauq Neck, to Epenetus Platt. Reserved in this deed
was his farm east of Cow Harbor (now Northport, Long Island) and the fruit of one apple tree for
the ensuing year. It was also agreed that he might have the use of his shop until October. Platt kept
all this until at least 5 September 1693; his will signed that day devised the accommodation that he
had purchased of Thomas Scidmore with all rights and privileges of lands and meadows “being by
denomination a two hundred pound alotmt” to his son Jonas Platt.

His return to Fairfield may have been occasioned by his third marriage; his new wife was Sarah
Howes, the widow of Ralph Keeler who had died at Fairfield in the fall of 1672. Sarah Keeler was
the daughter of Robert Howes, a citizen and fishmonger of the parish of St. Martin Orgar, London.
She was previously the relict of Edward Treadwell of Huntington (by whom she had six children)
and Edward Whelpley of Fairfield. On 8 May 1651 Edward Treadwell (her first husband) had sent
a letter of attorney to his wife’s brother, Reverend John Howes who was the minister of Barton,
Northamptonshire, about the estate of their deceased brother Jonathan Howes. Thomas Skidmore
was her fourth (and last) husband.

On 8 December 1673 Thomas Skidmore was (with Ezbon Wakeman and William Ward) appraisers
of the estate of John Knowles, late of Fairfield. He still continued to take an interest in the welfare
of his Baldwin stepchildren, and he and Cornelius Hull of Fairfield gave several deeds jointly as the
administrators of Nathaniel Baldwin. On 20 June 1677 he gave an important deed to his stepson
Daniel Westcott of his own land. It included his home lot of 2 1/2 acres with his dwelling, barn and
orchard (except that part previously deeded to his stepson-in-law William Read), seven acres in the
“new field,” and tracts at the “great meadow” and at Sascoe Neck. Thomas Skidmore was now
about 73 and this seems to have comprised most of his holdings at Fairfield. They were conveyed
to Westcott with the stipulation that he was not “to enter upon the said parcels until the expiration
of the natural life of Thomas Skidmore, Senior.” On 3 January 1681 Westcott resold a part of this
land to his half-sister and her husband William Reed noting again in his deed that it was not to be
recorded until after the death of Thomas Skidmore, Senior.

On 5 March 1678/9 he sold to Ezbon Wakeman two parcels of his lands at Fairfield as well as “the
one-half of his portion that he hath in the perpetual common” in the town, as well as his interest in
the two dividends at Compo. On 2 April 1679 he sold another parcel to Richard Ogden of Fairfield
and he was presumably now landless with only a life interest in his house and lot in the town.
On 14 October 1679 he petitioned the court for relief from the unnecessary debts that his servant
Samuel Griffin had run up while he (Griffin) was away in the colony’s service. Young Griffin
(1657-1691) was his grandson, the second son of his daughter Dorothy, wife of Hugh Griffin. He
had been apprenticed to his grandfather to learn the art of blacksmithing. The court found for
Thomas Skidmore and Samuel was ordered to be arrested when he “comes into these parts .. for the
recovery of the same.” The report of this case has been frequently cited as evidence that Skidmore
(now about 74 years of age) had served in King Philip’s War, a transparent error.

In 1681 he was back at Huntington, Long Island. The town now granted him “a little piece of land
that joineth to Epenetus Platt’s lot” and joining the shop of his extravagant grandson Samuel Griffin.
The grant was full of restrictions probably because of his advanced age. If Thomas Skidmore died or removed the land was to revert to the town, but they would pay for any house or shop he built on
it. If he removed but left a working blacksmith in the shop then the lot was to remain his property.
On 20 January 1681/2 he leased his house and farm at Freshponds in Huntington to Joseph Whitman
for three years at a rent of £9 annually. The lease was to begin on 16 April 1682 and Whitman
agreed “to leave the houseing in good repair, casualty of fire excepted.” This is the last mention of
Thomas Skidmore, Senior, at Huntington.

He went back once again (this time finally) to his home at Fairfield. On 22 March 1681/2 he drew
a lot in Fairfield when the town divided “ye old Indian field.” His right in the town continued even
after his death; in 1688 when Paul’s Neck and Wolf Swamp were divided by lottery his estate had
an interest.

His will was signed there on 20 April 1684. It leaves to his wife Sarah all his estate and “if God
shall take her away before she hath spent all of the said estate” then one half of the residue was at
her dispose and the other half was to be divided among his grandsons John Higby (“that married my
wife’s daughter”) and John Skidmore. John Higby (1649-1688) had married Rebecca Treadwell on
1 May 1689 and lived at Middletown, Connecticut. The bequest to his grandson John Skidmore is
a confusion as he had two living grandsons of this name. Probably intended was the John Skidmore of Stratford, Connecticut, who seems to have made his home after his father’s early death
with his grandfather.

His widow was also to pay 12d to each of his grandchildren who unfortunately are not named. She
was appointed the sole executrix and Lieutenant John Banks and William Hill, Senior, were named
overseers; Hill and Cornelius Hull, Junior, were the witnesses. The will is signed only with a large
shaky “T” and it must be taken that either his sight or strength had failed him by this date.
Thomas Skidmore died at Fairfield on or just previous to 31 October 1684. The inventory of his
estate was taken on November 13th and the widow was still alive on the 15th to certify the work
done by Jonathan Morehouse and Joseph Rowland as a true account. On December 8th the will and
inventory were exhibited at court and it is noted that “the said Sarah is also within a fortnight after
her husband’s decease also taken away by death.”

Thomas Skidmore is also noted as deceased in a deed dated 1 November 1684 at Huntington; news
of his death had obviously crossed Long Island Sound quickly. On that day John Skidmore, Junior,
purchased six acres of meadow at Crab Meadow which had belonged to Thomas Skidmore,
deceased, from Andrew Gibb of Brookhaven who was acting attorney for George Foreman. This
seems to be the tract that Thomas had mortgaged on 14 January 1681 to John Jones, a merchant of
New York, for the balance due Jones on account. It appears that John Skidmore paid off this
mortgage and collected a clear title to the meadow.

The inventory of his estate totaled £64 2d and it shows that Thomas had disposed of all his real
property before his death. He had probably made gifts of money and personal property to many of
his children and grandchildren before his death; the will of his son John mentions £50 given to him
by his father in New England. Aside from his clothes, a book, a sword, and a horse, all the items
were household goods and provisions: pewter, brass, linen, beds and bedding, a smoothing iron,
chests, lamps, a chafing dish, salt, Indian corn, pork and venison. There were debts, not specified, owing to the estate of £22 17sh 0d.

On the death of the executrix “whereby the estate is left destitute of an Administrator” the court
appointed Samuel Treadwell and Isaac Wheeler to administer the estate. Samuel Treadwell was a
son of Sarah Skidmore but the interest (if any) of Wheeler does not appear.

Thomas Skidmore and his last two wives are doubtless buried in Burial Hill on the south side of
Concord Street in Fairfield. The town abounded with native stone but the early gravestones there
have all either crumbled away or have been covered with the deposits of time.

Thomas Skidmore, who was almost 80 at the time of his death, survived all five of his proven
children. Several other children are sometimes given for him in error. It is frequently said that
Thomas Skidmore (presumably his son) and Daniel Whitehead (who died in 1668) were brothers.
This was once interpreted to mean that Thomas Skidmore, Junior, was the brother of Jane Ireland
who was Whitehead’s widow and the mother of his four youngest children. The inventory of the
estate of Daniel Whitehead dated 13 November 1668 mentions a cow confirmed to his son Adam
Whitehead (an undeniable son of Jane Whitehead) “it having been given to him by his grandfather
Ireland.” This record effectively eliminates Jane Ireland as a child of Thomas Skidmore, Senior.
In addition to Jane Whitehead two other children are given in error for Thomas Skidmore, Senior.
They can be disposed of quickly: a son Joseph (this name misread for John in the Cambridge vital
records) who was nonexistent, and a daughter Grace. Grace was in fact a granddaughter (a daughter
of Thomas Skidmore, Junior) as close attention to the Huntington deeds proves.

It has also been suggested that the wife of Samuel Jackson of Fairfield, whose Christian name is
unknown, was related to either the Skidmore or Higby family since two of her children named their
eldest daughters Jedidah possibly for their grandmother [Jedidah?] Jackson.
From
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/38322666/person/20446968523/mediax/1?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid|pgNum

Person says
The source is "Thomas Skidmore (Scudamore), 1605-1684, of Westerleigh, Gloucestershire, and Fairfield, Connecticut; his ancestors, and descendants to the ninth generation" by Warren Skidmore; Fifth Edition: Akron, Ohio 2006.

Another person claims:
from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kolbbarber/pages/trees/skidmores.html
Marriage Notes for RICHARD SKIDMORE and ANNES LAWRENCE:

Westbury-on-Trym is about 12 miles west of Westerleigh and is now a part of metropolitan Bristol. Annes Lawrence was an orphan at the time of her marriage to Richard Skidmore.

Richard Lawrence, a stonemason of that place, had been buried on Christmas Day 1603, leaving a will dated two days earlier. In it he left his daughter, Annes, "half my household stuff and the whole and entire sum of L13 6sh 8d of good English money". He was also survived by two sons, Robert and Thomas Lawrence. Annes had a stepmother, Joan, and a stepbrother, Richard Hewes.

Richard Skidmore must have returned almost immediately after his marriage to Westerleigh for they were presented to the Consistory Court (known familiarly as the "bawdy court") on a suspicion of incontinence before marriage. It is likely that Annes Skidmore was already visibly pregnant. This offense was invariably treated with relative lenience by the court.

Less that two years later Richard Skidmore was dead at Westbury-on-Trym, probably after an accident as his will states that he was "broke in the body". He is called a carpenter there, and he left his wife a debt of 35sh owed to him by Stephen Hiett.

All of his estate was to be divided between his wife, who was named executrix, and his son, Thomas. The will was written by the Rev. Christopher Trumper, curate of Westbury-on-Trym, in the familiar hand of the parish register. Trumper and Alice Sheppard are the two witnesses. Alice was betrothed to Thomas Lawrence, Annes' brother. (Thomas Lawrence was buried on 27 April 1606 at Holy Trinity, leaving a brief will spoken in the presence of his brother, Robert Lawrence, and his wife, in which he directed that Alice Sheppard, his contracted wife, should have the administration of his goods.)

The will of Richard Skidmore was probated at Bristol on 12 September 1607, administration being granted to the widow.

Source: Thomas Skidmore (Scudamore), 1605-1685, of Westerleigh, Glouchestershire, and Fairfield, Connecticut, 2nd Edition, by Warren Skidmore, 1985, pages 412-414.

Source Facts:

birth, gender, location, name, parents

Source URL:

http://books.google.com/books?id=nJFRAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Richard+Skydmore