Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/368

 was a trier of petitions in the parliament of January 1377, and on the accession of Richard II was reappointed one of the justices of the common bench, and granted 40l. a year (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Richard II, i. 1, 6). Skipwith regularly appears as a trier of petitions in every parliament of the reign down to February 1388, and in 1379 gave an opinion as one of the judges in parliament (Rot. Parl. iii. 61 et alibi). Skipwith's name is of frequent occurrence in various judicial commissions during the opening years of Richard II, and he was also placed on the commission of peace for the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, Warwick, Rutland, Lincoln, Northampton, and Derby (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Richard II, i. passim). With the other judges he was summoned to the council at Nottingham in August 1387, but on the plea of illness avoided attending, and so escaped participation in the opinion that the other judges gave, as they alleged under compulsion, in the king's favour against the commission. He was the only judge who had previously sat on the bench who acted as a trier of petitions in the parliament of February 1388, when his late colleagues were impeached. Skipwith seems to have retired from office shortly afterwards. His name and those of his two sons appear in the list of gentlemen of Lincolnshire who were sworn to support the lords appellant in 1388 (Rot. Parl. iii. 400–3). Skipwith was alive as late as 1392, but the date of his death is not known. By his wife Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir William de Hiltoft of Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire, he had, with other children, two sons, William and John. It has been alleged that Sir William de Skipwith, the chief baron, died in 1366, and that it was his son William who was appointed to the common bench. But Foss has adduced good reasons in contradiction of this theory, showing that it is on chronological grounds improbable that William de Skipwith the younger was old enough to be a judge in 1376, and that there is no evidence of there having been two lawyers of the name. This view is confirmed by the joint mention of Sir William de Skipwith and of William de Skipwith the younger on two commissions in 1378 and 1379 (Cal. Rot. Pat. Richard II, i. 299, 415), and by the mention of them both in the list of Lincolnshire gentlemen sworn to support the lords appellant in 1388. William de Skipwith the younger died without issue male. John de Skipwith, the judge's second son, represented Lincolnshire in the parliaments of 1406, 1407, and 1414 (Return of Members of Parliament, i. 269, 272, 281), and died in 1422. From him were descended the Skipwiths of Newbold Hall, Warwickshire, the Skipwiths of Metheringham, Lincolnshire, and the Skipwiths of Prestwould, Leicestershire. Baronetcies were held by each of these branches, but only the third is still extant.

[Authorities quoted; Knighton's Chron. ap. Scriptores Decem, pp. 2693–4; Foss's Judges of England.]

 SKIRLAW, WALTER (d. 1406), bishop successively of Lichfield, Bath, and Durham, and privy seal, was born at South Skirlaugh in the parish of Swine, eight miles northeast of Hull. Dodsworth preserved a story that he was the son of a sieve-maker, and, being ‘very untoward,’ ran away to Oxford, only resuming relations with his family after he became bishop of Durham in 1388 (, Colleges of Oxford, p. 46). But his father's alleged trade may be no more than inference from the riddle-like bearings of his coat-of-arms, and he obtained crown benefices for kinsmen in 1379 (Patent Roll, pp. 329, 330). His sister was prioress of Swine (Testamenta Eboracensia, ii. 314).

After taking his master's degree at Oxford, Skirlaw was elected to one of the fellowships (then called scholarships) on the foundation of William of Durham [q. v.], in the society which at that time bore the name of its founder, now University College. A preference was given to those who came from the neighbourhood of Durham (, p. 54). He graduated LL.D., and on 30 Nov. 1370 became prebendary of Fenton in York Cathedral; about the same time, if not earlier, he was appointed archdeacon of the East Riding (, iii. 142, 184). Entering the royal service as king's clerk ‘abiding in chancery,’ Skirlaw was employed in important business and received further preferment. In 1377 he is mentioned as a canon of Beverley Minster, and by January 1378 had been made dean of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London (Patent Roll, pp. 32, 44; Fœdera, vii. 183). During the minority of Richard II he was constantly employed on diplomatic missions abroad. In 1381 he was sent with Sir Nicholas Dagworth to Italy to negotiate with Pope Urban and the Italian princes, and did not return until April 1383 (ib. vii. 298, 307, 353–4). His services marked him out for promotion. In 1380 he was archdeacon of Northampton, and in 1381 he appears as treasurer of Lincoln, but soon effected an exchange. By June 1384 he had become keeper of the privy seal, and about the same time he resigned the deanery of St. Martin's (ib. vii. 455; Rot. Parl. iii. 169).

The see of Coventry and Lichfield falling