Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Rev. William Skepper

Male Bef 1597 - Bef 1646  (< 48 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name William Skepper 
    Prefix Rev. 
    Birth Bef 27 Nov 1597  [1, 2, 3
    Baptism 27 Nov 1597  Boston, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 3
    Gender Male 
    Alternate death Between 1640 and 1650  [1, 3
    Death Bef 1646  [2
    Person ID I5234  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP
    Last Modified 11 Jan 2023 

    Father Edward Skepper,   b. 1552   d. 10 Nov 1629, East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 77 years) 
    Mother Mary Robinson   d. Aft 1630 
    Marriage 11 Apr 1592  Boston, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Family ID F1705  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sarah Fisher 
    Marriage 17 Jan 1639  Boston, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 3
    Children 
    +1. Sarah Skepper,   b. Abt 1640   d. 18 Dec 1711, Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 71 years)
    Family ID F1686  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 7 May 2020 

  • Notes 
    • Emigrated to New England in 1639. One of AP's two proven gateway ancestors.

      He was admitted a pensioner at Sidney College, Cambridge, 8 Jul 1612. He matriculated 1614, B.A., 1617-18. He was Rector of Thorpe by Wainfleete (Thorpe-in-the-Marsh) in 1630, a parish next to Wainfleet All Saints where his elder sister Mary had married the rector in 1622. He left Thorpe-in-the-Marsh sometime before Dec 1638, when John Watts is recorded as the vicar there, and is next seen in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he married his second wife Sarah Fisher. The exact date of his emigration to New England is unknown but it appears to have taken place in 1639. He did not subsequently live long there, but he is recorded there as having arranged for certain monies to be provided to his four older children.

      His descendants include Calvin Coolidge, Roy Rogers (the actor and singer, not the guitarist), Tuesday Weld, and John Kerry.

      Rev. William Skepper = Jane (first wife)
      Jane Skepper = Abraham Browne
      Jane Browne = Henry Lunt
      Jane Lunt = Nathaniel Drake
      Abraham Drake = Martha Eaton
      Martha Drake = John Smith
      John Smith = Mary "Polly" Mudgett
      Mary Hussey Smith = Jacob Lee Merrill
      George David Merrill = Mary Bird
      Gertrude May Merrill = Frederick George Sanders
      Doris May Sanders = Gordon Arnold Markle
      Thomas Wayne Markle = Doria L. Ragland
      Rachel Megan Markle (1981- ) = Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex

  • Sources 
    1. [S4123] Mary Lovering Holman, "The Skepper Family." The American Genealogist 20:77, 1943.

    2. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.

    3. [S4124] James L. Hansen, "The Ancestry of Joan Legard, Grandmother of the Rev. William1 Skepper/Skipper of Boston, Massachusetts." The American Genealogist 69:129, Jul 1994.