SKELTON, John I

Perhaps the most obscure of all fifteenth-century knights of the shire for Cambridgeshire, this MP was possibly related to the Skeltons of Cumberland, one of whom, Sir Thomas Skelton†, made his way south in Richard II’s reign and established himself in Cambridgeshire and Hampshire. There is, however, no basis for the assertion that John was actually descended from Sir Thomas, all of whose children predeceased him.1 A.F. Bottomley, ‘Admin. Cambs.’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 1952), 120. It is worth noting that a Thomas Skelton was appointed to a comm. of gaol delivery at Cambridge castle in Oct. 1415: C66/398, m. 34d.

Conceivably John was the John Skelton who was pardoned in June 1424 for marrying Margaret Aylesbury without royal licence.2 CPR, 1422-9, p. 198. She was the daughter of Hugh Mortimer†, the former treasurer of England, and the widow of John, son and heir of Sir Thomas Aylesbury†. Her previous husband had died in 1422 and when as his executor she received a grant of probate of his will John ‘Selton’, esquire, acted as her proxy.3 PCC 2 Luffenham (PROB11/3, f. 12). Margaret held a third part of three manors in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, including in the latter county Ashley, where John Skelton held a quarter of a knight’s fee in 1428. She died in 1429.4 CIPM, xxiii. 254-6; Feudal Aids, iv. 44. Her inq. post mortem describes her as Margaret ‘who was the wife’ of John Skelton but this does not mean her husband was dead and there are no grounds for the editors of the CIPM calling her a widow. Whether or not the MP was Margaret’s husband, it is impossible to tell if he was the John Skelton who was a deputy at the Exchequer to three successive Warwick chamberlains, John Oudeby*, Nicholas Calton and John Throckmorton I*, from 1401 to 1433.5 PRO List ‘Exchequer Officers’, 16, 185. That John Skelton died bef. Nov. 1434: E403/717, m. 7.

It is surprising to find that the MP should ever have become a knight of the shire, since he never held any other appointment in Cambridgeshire. The only firm evidence relating to him comes from the summer of 1426 when one of the servants of John Skelton of Steeple Morden, esquire, became involved in a fracas at the Cambridge gaol delivery. Trouble arose after an argument between one Thomas Dore, a yeoman from Somerset, and a juror, Robert Couper of Arrington. When Couper left the guildhall Dore attacked him on the street outside, striking him on the arm with a sword. Dore and Skelton’s servant, Godfrey Brichefeld, apparently an accomplice, subsequently secured themselves in a room at an inn and refused to surrender either to the sheriff, John Hore*, or to other Crown officers present. At length, the assize judges delivering the gaol, William Babington and William Westbury, came to the scene and arrested them, causing an unruly crowd to gather. Later on the same day, Skelton and Thomas Chalers† took custody of the two men and undertook to ensure that they would appear before the King’s Council, first in the autumn and then at the Cambridge gaol delivery on the following 24 Feb. At the latter date, Dore and Brichefeld failed to appear but they and their mainpernors were present at the next gaol delivery in July, when they were each amerced 20s. and each of the mainpernors 6s. 8d.6 JUST3/206, rot. 17d.