Ellen (Unknown) Skidmore (abt. 1605 - abt. 1656)

Born about 1605 in England [uncertain]

Wife of Thomas Skidmore — married about 1624 in Westerleigh, Gloucestershire, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died about 1656 at about age 51 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Ellen (Unknown) Skidmore is currently protected by the Puritan Great Migration Project for reasons described in the narrative. Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: PGM

This profile is being protected by the Puritan Great Migration Project due to her disputed last name at birth shown by some as Whitehead or Prigg, neither of which has any primary or reliable sources.

Biography

Ellen Died 1656 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Thomas and Ellen (Unknown) Skidmore had (5) five children, all born in England except John:^[1]

1. Thomas Skidmore, born about 1627
2. Jedidah Skidmore (female), born about 1630; married Edward Higby (1616-1699) of Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut, about 1648' she died about 1658 at Huntington, Long Island
3. Dorothy Skidmore, born about 1634; married Hugh Griffin (ca. 1629-1691) of Stratford, Connecticut, on 20 June 1652; she was buried 30 April 1670 in the Old Burying Ground at Stratford
4. Richard Skidmore, baptized 11 March 1637/8 at Westerleigh, Gloucestershire
5. John Skidmore, born 11 April 1643 at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Research Notes

Name Prigg: According to one unsourced reference document, "Nothing certain has been learned of her family, but it seems likely that her family name was Prigg." The author refers to her father as "William Prigg, yeoman, of Westerleigh [who was one of Thomas'] agents to sell his messuage on Westerleigh Street". "William Prigg... was probably his father-in law. He was a substantial yeoman who owned a messuage which adjoined that of Thomas Skidmore’s uncle Thomas on Westerleigh Street, and the Prigg family would certainly have been well-known to the Thomas Skidmore of New England... Prigg’s will does not mention his presumptive daughter Ellen Skidmore or her children". No other publications found to date show that her last name was Prigg.^[1]

Name Whitehead: According to the same reference as above, "On 16 May 1647 Susannah Hudson of Boston wrote to John Winthrop, Junior, who was then at New London, asking him to “stop [collect] 14 shilings for mee for Daniel Whithed which is in Tomas Chidnor’s handes.” This suggests that Whitehead was already the son-in-law of “Tomas Chidnor” of New London... Daniel Whitehead was certainly at Hempstead on Long Island by 1647, and his presumptive brother-in-law Thomas Skidmore, Thomas Skidmore, Junior (1627-1683?) had followed him there by the same year from Connecticut. The relationship is also substantiated by an enormous number of records that show that the Skidmores and the Whiteheads behaved for several generations later in a truly “cousinly” fashion, and that Whitehead’s first wife was a Skidmore and that she was the mother of the eldest three sons mentioned in Whitehead’s will in 1668."^[1] [Italics added]

In a work published in 1902, the author, John Cornell asserted that Daniel Whitehead, born 1603, married Jeanne Skidmore (without citing any sources).^[2]. In 1911, a different author contended: "Jeanne Skidmore married Daniel Whitehead of Hempstead, L. I., and became the ancestress of one of the most prominent families on Long Island... No records have been found by me that show whether she was a sister of Thomas Skidmore, or of Richard Skidmore ; but she belonged to their generation and was without doubt "Jeanne Scudamore" of England, and a sister of one of these pioneers, I am inclined to think of Thomas Scudamore of Huntington, L. I."^[3] No sources were provided to support the claims.

In 2000, an article in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record provides insight into the confusion about Thomas' first wife being Ellen Whitehead. The article makes a compelling case for why Whitehead is incorrect, and also refutes published information that Thomas Skidmore and Daniel Whitehead are brothers-in-law.^[4] At the end of the article, the author reminds the reader that even with publications by reputable genealogists, readers should always seek out sources in support of their information.

In 2005, Warren Skidmore stated that "Jeanne Whitehead was not a Skidmore. Her family was not correctly identified until 1970 when an abstract of the inventory of Daniel Whitehead’s estate at Newtown, Long Island was found and published." "Thomas Skidmore III of Huntington continued his interest in Jane Whitehead’s posterity. On 15 December 1702/3 he petitioned for and was granted the administration on the estate of Simon Ingersoll who had died at Huntington on 8 January 1702. It seems probable that it was the several items of Skidmore-Whitehead transactions that led Cornell (and then Hawley) to wrongly think that Jeanne Ireland, the third wife, was a Skidmore.^[5]

In summary, all the "sources" that showed Ellen was a Skidmore were incorrect, as proven by detailed research.

Ellen (Unknown) Skidmore, Born 1607, Birthplace: Herefordshire, England; Marriage to Thomas Skidmore, 1626 age 21 Westerly, Gloucester, England

An unidentified son was shown in a merged in profile: Joseph, born 1647, Murderkill Hundred, Kent, Delaware

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Warren Skidmore, Thomas Skidmore (Scudamore), 1605-1684, of Westerleigh, Gloucestershire, and Fairfield, Connecticut; his ancestors, and descendants to the ninth generation., published 2010. PDF link, pages 1-12 via Skidmore and Scudamore Family History
2. ↑ John Cornell, Genealogy of the Cornell family : being an account of the descendants of Thomas Cornell, published 1902. Reference pag 376
3. ↑ Emily Carrie Hawley, A genealogical and biographical record of the pioneer Thomas Skidmore <Scudamore> of the Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies in New England and of Huntington, Long Island, published 1911. Reference page 265
4. ↑ Harry Macy, Jr., "The Family of Daniel1 Whitehead: A century and a half of fact and fiction", New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Reference Volume 131 (2000), pages 263- 275, especially 273 via $ubscription
5. ↑ Warren Skidmore, Occasional Paper, no. 41 DANIEL WHITEHEAD, (1603?-1668), OF HEMPSTEAD, AND HIS PROBABLE REAL SKIDMORE WIFE, Reference pages 1, 2

See also:

• Warren Skidmore, THOMAS SKIDMORE (SCUDAMORE), 1605-1684,OF WESTERLEIGH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE,AND FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT;his ancestors, and descendants to the ninth generation, Revised 4 August 2010, PDF Book Website: http://www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com/Westerleigh%20book,%20revised%202010.pdf NOTE: Cites no primary sources for its suppositions
• http://www.crossedbrushstudio.com/windowsintoourpast/Vol1/skidmore.htm NOTE: No sources shown

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149562744/ellen-skidmore: accessed 01 September 2022), memorial page for Ellen Whitehead Skidmore (1607–1656), Find a Grave Memorial ID 149562744, ; Maintained by James Bianco (contributor 47745493) Burial Details Unknown. Unsourced, no headstone

• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQXN-ZPL : 15 January 2020), Ellen in entry for John Skidmore, 1643.