Reverend Samuel Skelton -11th Great Grandfather

Family History Research
Repinski-Dietz Family Tree
Samuel Skelton-11th Great Grandfather
Another Ancestral Connection to Salem Massachusetts
Surname Branches: Repinski-Dietz-Brown-Smith-Olney-Marsh-Skelton


Reverend Samuel Skelton
BIRTH Feb 1592
Boston, Boston Borough, Lincolnshire, England
DEATH 2 Aug 1634 (aged 42)
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA

Today I discovered another ancestral Great Grandpa who was one of the men responsible for the founding of the 1st church in Salem Mass.

Samuel Skelton was one of my 11th Great Grandfathers in a line that comes down to me through my mother, Marlene Dietz Repinski via one of her many family branches back to Colonial New England.

I found this amazing man and the story of his life while researching a line that goes back to my 'Basset" family branch of Medieval England that I have been looking into of late.

I also came upon an interesting possible further family connection to another of my ancestral great grandfathers, Roger Williams, through Samuel's mother who's maiden name is Williams. Sarah Williams, who would be my 12th Great grandmother and who married Samuel's father, William Skelton.

Sarah was born in 1565 in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England and though I have been unable to find her parents at this point, I have a feeling that she is closely related to Roger Williams as the connections via the Salem Church and Roger being one of it's members, leads me to surmise that somewhere there is an intimate relationship....

I discover at least 4 new ancestral great grandparents each day and I find myself so lucky to have been born to this woman who I have discovered has a pedigree that is so utterly amazing.
If she only knew of all of this while she was alive.

My family lineage to Reverend Samuel Skelton:

 Samuel is the 11th great grandfather of John, Jane, James, Jackie & Jeff John Repinski

1. John is the son of Marlene Grace (Dietz) Repinski
2. Marlene is the daughter of Raymond Harold Dietz
3. Raymond is the son of Henry Chester Dietz
4. Henry is the son of Eleanor May (Brown) Dietz
5. Eleanor is the daughter of Mary E (Smith) Brown
6. Mary is the daughter of Martin S Smith
7. Martin is the son of Israel Smith
8. Israel is the son of Lavina Olney
9. Lavina is the daughter of Obadiah Olney
10. Obadiah is the son of Thomas Olney
11. Thomas is the son of Elizabeth (Marsh) Olney
12. Elizabeth is the daughter of Susanna (Skelton) Marsh
13. Susanna is the daughter of Samuel Skelton

 

Life Sketch of Reverend Samuel Skelton 

11th Great Grandfather

(1592-1634)

Samuel Skelton (c. 1592- August 2, 1634) was the first pastor of the First Church of Salem, Massachusetts, which is the original Puritan church in North America.^[1][2]

 

Biography

On February 26, 1592/3,^[3] Skelton was baptized in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England^[4] where his father, William was rector. 

He matriculated at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1608 and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1611 and earned a master's degree there in 1615. He was curate of Sempringham, Lincolnshire, c. 1615-20 and probably later chaplain to the Earl of Lincoln. 

In 1619 he married Susanna Travis at Sempringham.

He was recruited by John Endecott, who had just been appointed as the governor of a new colony, the London Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay in New England. 

Endecott invited Skelton to come to America with him and serve as minister of the colony. Endecott already had a close relationship with Skelton and considered him as his spiritual father.^[5][6][7]

Skelton and his family arrived in Salem on June 23, 1629. Skelton had been ordained in England, and had served for many years as a priest of the established Church of England in Lincolnshire. 

The new church in Salem was organized as one of the established English churches, and continued in that capacity until January 1, 1630. At that point, use of the Book of Common Prayer was discontinued, and the church became the second independent Congregational church in New England. This change, along with the significant assistance of Skelton, made it possible for the Pilgrims and the Puritans to unite as one colony.^[8][9][10]

Congregationalists felt very strongly that only individual congregations were real churches. The Church of England, with all of its bishops, hierarchy and ecclesiastical courts, counted for nothing in the eyes of God, and had strayed far from the teachings of the Bible. The New England Congregationalists also felt that the parish churches in England were dens of unpunished sin, ungodliness and false government. 

When the Winthrop Fleet led by Puritan leader John Winthrop arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1630, Skelton informed them that although he considered them to be real Christians, Skelton's church only gave visitors' privileges to members of real churches (which their parish churches in England were not). So, they would not be welcomed at the celebration of the Lord's supper and their children would not be baptized in Skelton's church.^[11]

Prominent English minister John Cotton was initially offended by this action, and was concerned that the Puritans had become separatists, as were the Pilgrims. However, Cotton eventually came to agree with Skelton, and concluded that the only real churches were autonomous, individual congregations, and that there was no legitimate higher ecclesiastical power.^[12][13][14]

Colonial authorities granted Skelton 213 acres of land in Danversport for services rendered to the colony (the land was a peninsula which became known as Skelton Neck). Skelton was considered to be reserved "in his manners," but "his talents and attainments were respectable." He was "a man of gracious speech, full of faith, and furnished by the Lord with gifts from above."^[15]

Roger Williams came to America in 1631 and in April became an assistant to Rev. Skelton. After Skelton's death, Williams became minister but was banished from Massachusetts for questioning the power of the colonial government over the church. 

As a result, he left the colony and founded Rhode Island.^[16][17]

Sources and Further Reading

Barz-Snell, Rev. Jeffrey, "A 'Short' History of the First Church in Salem," First Church in Salem, Unitarian Web Site ("Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2016-02-06.), Retrieved 4 Feb. 2011.

Marsh, D. W., Ed., Genealogy of the Marsh Family Outline for Five Generations, p. 1, Press of J. R. Williams, Amherst, MA, 1886.

Alumni Cantabrigienses

Anderson, Robert Charles (1995). The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society. pp. 3: 1685.

Upham, William Phineas, Papers Relating to the Rev. Samuel Skelton, 1875.

Harrison, Bruce H., The Family Forest Descendants of Rev. Samuel Skelton, p. 4, Millisecond Publishing Co., Inc., Kamuela, HI, 2004.

Stager, Helen and Evelyn, A Family Odyssey, pp.445-447, Nicollet Press, Inc., Pipestone, MN, 1983.

Cutter, William Roland, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Vol. II, pp. 632-634, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, NY, 1908.

Dow, George Francis, Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, pp. 239-240, Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, MD, 1935, reprinted 2002.

Winthrop, John, History of New England, 1630-1649, Edited by James Kendall Hosmer, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1908.

Winship, Michael P. Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America, pp. 85-6, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2018. (ISBN 978-0-300-12628-0).

Winship, Michael P. Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America, p. 86, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2018. (ISBN 978-0-300-12628-0).

Hall, David D. "John Cotton's Letter to Samuel Skelton," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 3 (July 1965), pp. 478-485 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1920458?seq=1). Retrieved December 2019.

Yarbrough, Slayden. "The Influence of Plymouth Colony Separatism on Salem: An Interpretation of John Cotton's Letter of 1630 to Samuel Skelton," Cambridge Core, Vol. 51., Issue 3, September 1982, pp. 290-303 (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/influence-of-plymouth-colony-separatism-on-salem-an-interpretation-of-john-cottons-letter-of-1930-to-samuel-skelton/2C9555142F8038C451BD7CD51D074F7B). Retrieved December 2019.

Marsh, Lucius B., The Genealogy of John Marsh of Salem and his Descendants, 1633-1888, pp. 16-20, J. E. Williams, Book and Job Printer, Amherst, MA, 1888.

"Roger Williams ... a Brief Biography," Roger Williams Family Association Web site (http://www.rogerwilliams.org/biography.htm) Retrieved 4 Feb. 2011.

17. Williams, Roger, "A Plea for Religious Liberty," Constitution.org Web site (http://www.constitution.org/bcp/religlib.htm) Retrieved 4 Feb. 2011.

External links

• First Church in Salem Web site
• Salem, MA Web site