Sir John Skeffington, 2nd Baronet (c. 1590 – 19 November 1651) was an English landowner and politician, elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1626. He was fined a high sum for supporting the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Public life

Skeffington was the eldest son of Sir William Skeffington, 1st Baronet of Fisherwicke, Staffordshire, and his wife, Margaret Dering of Surrenden, near

Lenham Lenham is a market village and civil parish in the Maidstone district, in Kent, England, situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hot ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

.George Edward Cokayne ''Complete Baronetage, Volume 1'' 1900
/ref> He matriculated from

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

, in the spring of 1603 and was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

on 30 October 1604. He was knighted in August 1624. In 1626, he was elected Member of Parliament for

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

. He succeeded to the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on the death of his father in 1635. From 1637 to 1638 Skeffington was

Sheriff of Staffordshire This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities as ...

. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War and was fined £1,152 in November 1650, which was reduced later to £961. Skeffington was succeeded in the baronetcy briefly by his son William (died 7 April 1652), then by a cousin, John Skeffington, the 4th baronet, who was the son of Sir Richard Skeffington, knight.

Marriage and death

Skeffington married Cicely Skeffington of

Skeffington Skeffington is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It lies 11 miles/18 km east of Leicester on the A47 Uppingham road, between Billesdon and Tugby and Keythorpe. The population at the 2011 cens ...

, Leicestershire. They had at least one child. He died at the age of about 60 and was buried at Skeffington on 20 November 1651.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skeffington, John 1590s births 1651 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Members of the Middle Temple English MPs 1626 Members of the Parliament of England for Newcastle-under-Lyme People from Leicestershire 17th-century English landowners