Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/365

Skippon and appointed him sergeant-major-general of the army, to which the common council reluctantly acquiesced (17 Nov. 1642,, i. 112).

In December 1642 a pamphlet was published narrating Skippon's relief of Marlborough and victory over Prince Rupert before it. In January 1643 there was also a report that he had taken Reading; but both rumours were false (, History of Marlborough, 1854, p. 175; Mercurius Aulicus, 2 Jan. 1643). In April he took part in the siege of Reading, and it was said that he was to be left in command of the besiegers while Essex advanced on Oxford (Good and True News from Reading, 1643, 4to, p. 6). Skippon also accompanied Essex on his march to the relief of Gloucester, and did eminent service at the first battle of Newbury (, Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, 1825, pp. 239, 245;, Great Civil War, i. 216). In November he occupied Newport Pagnell for the parliament, and on 24 Dec. took Grafton House in Northamptonshire (Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 148;, God's Ark, p. 103). During Essex's Cornish campaign, in August and September 1644, Skippon's courage and ability were conspicuous. When Essex escaped by sea, he sent a message to Skippon bidding him make the best terms he could, and adding in a letter: ‘Sir, if you live I shall take as great a care of you as of my father if alive; if God otherwise dispose of you, as long as I have a drop of blood I shall strive to revenge yours on the causers of it.’ Skippon called a council of war, and exhorted his officers to make an effort to cut their way through as the horse had done; but failing to persuade his men to renew the fight, he was obliged to capitulate, surrendering guns, baggage, and arms (, v. 704–10). ‘In all this trouble,’ wrote a parliamentary officer, ‘I observed Major-general Skippon in his carriage; but never did I see any man so patient, so humble, and so truly wise and valiant in all his actions as he’ (, Barnstaple during the Civil War, 1889, p. 320).

At the second battle of Newbury (27 Oct. 1644) Skippon had his revenge; for the chief success of the day fell to the troops under his command, who recaptured six of the guns they had lost in Cornwall. ‘Never,’ he wrote to the committee of both kingdoms, ‘did men perform so dangerous a service, nor came through so difficult a work with more undismayed spirits than the poor handful of my lord general's old foot’ (, v. 723). Like the other commanders of the joint army, he was severely blamed for not preventing the king's relief of Donnington Castle (9 Nov.), but based his defence on the disorganised condition of the army, and the impossibility of collecting a sufficient force in time to give battle (ib. v. 733).

When the new model was organised Skippon was appointed sergeant-major-general to Fairfax, and his influence was of the greatest value in persuading the old soldiers of Essex's army to enrol themselves in the new army. In an ‘excellent, pious, and pithy hortatory speech’ he pledged his word to the men for good usage and constant pay, ending, ‘As I have been with you hitherto, so upon all occasion of service to God and my country I shall, by the help of God, be willing to live and die with you’ (, Burning Bush, p. 133;, vi. 8, 17). Skippon took the field with Fairfax in May 1645, and while the general blockaded Oxford, he endeavoured to take Borstall House in Buckinghamshire, but was repulsed with loss (ib. vi. 36). At Naseby he marshalled the foot of the parliamentary army, taking post himself on the left centre. He was dangerously wounded by a shot in the side towards the close of the fight, but declined to leave the field, telling Fairfax he would not go off as long as a man would stand (ib. p. 45;, Memorials, i. 448). The commons sent down a physician to attend him, and he received letters of thanks from the speakers of both houses (ib. i. 452, 456; Lords' Journals, vii. 450). He was brought up to London to be treated, narrowly escaping with his life, through an accident to his litter on the way, and lay for some weeks in great danger (, England's Worthies, 1647, p. 56). On 2 Dec. 1645 parliament passed an ordinance appointing Skippon governor of Bristol, and he was then sufficiently recovered to accept the post, which he found an extremely troublesome one (Lords' Journals, viii. 153;, Memorials of Bristol, ii. 466). He rejoined Fairfax at the siege of Oxford (1 May 1645), where he undertook the construction and management of the forts and entrenchments erected by the besiegers (, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, pp. 255, 258).

In December 1646 Skippon was recommended by Fairfax to be made governor of Newcastle, and to command the convoy which was to take the Scots the 200,000l. voted them by parliament, on the withdrawal of their army from England (, vi. 389, 398; Lords' Journals, viii. 700; Tanner MSS. lix. 632, 690, 695). On 29 March 1647 the House of Commons summoned him to resume his duties with the army, and a week later (6 April) he was