Skillern, Stephen

Submitted by edpope on

see Autobiography of Francis Place ed. Mary Thale p.87. There spelt Skillem but this may have been a transcription error. Perhaps a fairly common error which led to Place thinking the name was spelt and pronounced with an 'm'. Of the various friends of his father's whose lives Place believed ended in poverty (he mentioned a list of 27) eight are named on pages 87 and 88 but four of those, including Skillern, seem to have owned property at their deaths (the others were Bury, Robinson and Woollams).

Stephen Skillern tailor of Arundel Street was buried at Petersham Surrey 27.3.1797 age 51. He made his will on 4.3.1797 leaving two leasehold houses in Arundel Street and a house in Howard Street as well as legacies. One of the witnesses was William Woollams (qv). As Place noted he seems to have had no family of his own and no wife or children were mentioned in his will. He was the third son of Isaac Skillern of Winchcombe, Glos (died 1766) and his wife Ann (née Tanner) also of Winchcombe, who were married at Chipping Campden, Glos on 8.10.1733, His eldest brother William born in 1737 married in 1775 at Mathon, Worcs, Jane Solloway of that place. Their daughter Mary Ann was buried at Petersham, Surrey in 1780 and William died in 1781, a cook of Grays Inn, London. A Joseph Skillern who was probably his cousin had married in 1772 at Mathon, Worcs, Melina Solloway, probably the sister of Jane Solloway, and was thus referred to in William's will as his brother. This Joseph was the son of Joseph Skillern, salesman of Gloucester, who had gone bankrupt in 1750.. He had another son Thomas, music engraver of St Martins Lane, who married in 1773 at Petersham, Surrey an Esther Skillern, and died in 1800 mentioning no wife or children in his will. The eldest son of Joseph & Melina, Richard Solloway Skillern (1773-1836), went to Oxford and became a priest; their second son Thomas Skillern (1776-1849) was apprenticed to his uncle Thomas the music engraver and continued in that line of business as well as playing violin at concerts. The second son of Isaac Skillern of Winchcombe was isaac (1742-1805) land surveyor of Winchcombe.

In his lifetime Stephen Skillern tailor of Arundel Street voted in 1780, 1784, 1788 and 1790, insured with SunFire in 1791 and 1794, took an apprentice in 1788 and stood bail for a defendant at Middlesex Sessions in 1794. He also had a cousin Mary Skillern of White Horse Yard, Drury Lane who died in 1809 aged 60, and her will made in 1807 mentioned her brother Stephen Skillern who had a daughter, Mary Ann. I could find no other reference to this other Stephen Skillern.