Parents
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Was the first of his name in the country.
1605
birthMayshill, Westerleigh, Gloustershire, England ⇓ In the Spring. It was likely he was baptized in the church of St. James the Great, but the records for the year are lost. Little is known of his childhood. His mother married John Cooke as her second husband in 1608, and the register shows that the Cookes had eight children. Evidence suggests that he did not live with his mother and stepfather, but that his youth was spent mainly in Westerleigh with his grandfather and (in particular) with his 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. 4 Sources ⇓ |
| 1605 • The Priory of St. Gregory's is founded at Douai, Flanders, at this time in the Spanish Netherlands, by its first prior, John Roberts, and other exiles, thus becoming the first English Benedictine house to renew conventual life after the English Reformation. More than two centuries later the community will establish Downside Abbey back in England. |
1624
Age: 19y
birth of childJedidiah Skidmore Mayshill, Gloucestershire, England ⇓ 1 Source ⇓ |
1636
Jun 10
Age: 31y
immigrationBoston, Massachusetts, USA ⇓ Appears in Boston. John Winthrop sends supplies to his son John Winthrop the younger, and mentions in his letter to his son "I left it to James and Thomas Skidmore to send such as might befittest both for travel and for your use." Thomas Skidmore and James would have presumably sent the materials from Boston. Thomas soon returned to England. 1 Source ⇓ |
| 1636 • King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen, to build ships or to work as galley rowers. |
about
Age: 34y
1639
Age: 34y
immigrationCambridge, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA ⇓ He makes a third trip across the Atlantic and this time stays in America. 1 Source ⇓ |
| 1639 • Sakoku (closed country policy) starts in Japan (approximate date). |
1646
Jun
Age: 41y
movedNew London, Connecticut, USA ⇓ Sells his home in Cambridge Massachussets on June 1, and quickly thereafter joins Governor Winthrop (the younger) in what is now New London. Reverend Thomas Peters wrote to Withrop on June 29 that "we shall be about 50 souls at the arrival of Goodman Skidmore whereof 30 will be infants." The town was then called Pequot or Nameag. Not long after Thomas Skidmore's arrival, the local Indian chief and about 300 of his tribe descended on a hunting party and friendly Indians from the town, where the settlers were chased back to town and an Indian village was destroyed. 1 Source ⇓ |
1684
Apr 20
Age: 79y
willHe leaves his last wife Sarah his estate and "if Godshall taker her away before she hath spent all of the said of the estate" then one half of the residue was at her dispose and the other half was to be divided among his grandsons John Higby and John Skidmore. 1 Source ⇓ |
| 1684 • René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle sails from France, again, with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. |
1684
Oct 31
Age: 79y
deathFairfield, Connecticut, USA ⇓ The inventory of his estate was taken on November 13th and his widow Sarah was still alive on the 15th to certify. 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. He lived to be roughly eighty years, surviving all of his five proven children. 2 Sources ⇓ |
| 1684 • Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley. |