Philip Skippon
Philip Skippon (c. 1600, West Lexham, Norfolk – c. 20 February 1660) supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War as a senior officer in the New Model Army. Prior to the war he fought in the religious wars on the continent. During the Interregnum he was a member of Parliament, an active soldier and on occasions a government administrator.[1][2]
Life
Background
Philip Skippon was the son of Luke Skippon (c. 1567–1638), the son of Bartholomew Skippon of
To 1638
Philip entered the military profession at an early age and in July 1620 volunteered to join Sir
1639–1644
A veteran of 18 years' experience, Captain Skippon returned to England in 1638. On 23 October 1639 he was recommended by Charles I of England for a command in the Honourable Artillery Company and he moved to London to take up this command. With civil war looming, on 10 January 1642 he was made major-general and commander of the City of London's Trained Bands by Parliament in defiance of the king's authority, and two days later he mustered them to welcome the five members who Charles had failed to arrest. On 13 May Charles ordered Skippon to join him at York, but Skippon replied "I desire to honour God and not to honour men", and Parliament declared Charles's order illegal. Skippon was absent at the Parliamentarian defeats at Edgehill and Brentford, but continued to train his men before marching them out of London to strengthen the forces of the Earl of Essex, Captain-General of the Parliament's forces. He then faced Royalist forces at the Battle of Turnham Green, encouraging his under-trained militiamen with the words:
Come my boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily and fight heartily. I will run the same hazards and fortunes with you. Remember the cause is for God, and for the defence of yourselves, your wives, your children. Come, my honest brave boys, pray heartily and fight heartily, and God will bless us.[7]
Within a week of the battle Essex made Skippon his Sergeant-Major-General, a post which carried with it the command of the foot and the complicated duty of arranging the line of battle. In 1643 his religious tracts written in the Netherlands were collected and published as The Christian Centurion, one of many devotional tracts he published for his troops to read. However, his high level of experience meant that Parliament was unwilling to risk him in action early in the war, though he did serve alongside Essex at Gloucester. His first field command came on 20 September 1643, with command of the left wing and reserves at the First Battle of Newbury. He continued serving with Essex during the disastrous Lostwithiel campaign and was left in command of the Parliamentarian garrison of 6,000 there on 1 September 1644 when Essex and Lord Robartes fled to Plymouth. The following day, without hope of reinforcement, Skippon negotiated with King Charles: having gained very reasonable terms for his forces, he surrendered and marched his force out of the town. He then gathered the infantrymen from that force in October and marched them to take part in the second Battle of Newbury, occupying the centre of the high ground near Stockcross and recapturing seven of the guns they had lost at Lostwithiel.
1645
The appointment as Sergeant-Major-General of the
Post-war
Skippon endeavoured to preserve a middle position between his own
Family
He had first married Maria Comes of
References
- ^ M. Noble, Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, 2 vols (Birmingham, 1784), II, pp. 480-81 (Google).
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25693. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ T. Quarles, The History and Antiquities of Foulsham: In Norfolk (Joseph Cundall, London 1842), pp. 80-108 (Google).
- ^ J.A. Venn and J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol 4 (Cambridge University Press 1927), p. 86 (Internet Archive).
- ^ I. Pells, 'Philip Skippon: The Norfolk Genesis of a Parliamentary General', Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society XLVII, Part 2 (2015).
- ^ 'Skippon, Phillip: Parliamentarian soldier', in S.C. Manganiello, The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1639-1660 (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland; Toronto; Oxford, 2004), p. 497 (Google).
- ^ 'Skippon, Phillip: Parliamentarian soldier', in S.C. Manganiello, The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1639-1660 (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland; Toronto; Oxford, 2004), p. 497 (Google).
- ^ Philip Skippon, Parliamentary General
- English Worthies (1647, reprint 1845), pp. 50-59.
- ^ J.J. Howard (ed.), Miscellanea Genealogica et Topographica, New Series Vol. I (Hamilton, Adams & Co., London 1874), pp. 37-40, at pp. 38-39 (Google).
- ^ P. Watson, 'Skippon, Sir Philip (1641-91), of Edwardstone, Suff.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament online.
- ^ Quarles, History and Antiquities of Foulsham, p. 97.
- ^ Will of Major-General Phillipp Skippon of Acton, Middlesex (P.C.C. 1660, Nabbs quire).
- ^ E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Vol. II (Author/Simmons and Kirkby, Canterbury 1782), pp. 481-82 (Google).
Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Skippon, Philip". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 192. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the