Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/370

 he seems to have taken no other part in the rising than by singing ballads about it. He died in April 1803, and is buried in the churchyard of Athelstaneford, where a quaint rhyme on his tombstone tells of his local reputation as an athlete and wit. His son Archibald is separately noticed.

Few Scottish anthologies omit Skirving's taunting ‘Hey, Johnnie Cope,’ which he wrote in 1745 to an old tune common in his day, and of which there are now several versions (cf., Jacobite Relics, 1821, ii. 111, 308 sq.). This and a similar ballad on the battle of Prestonpans are the only survivals of what was probably a collection of ballads which Skirving wrote for local amusement.

 SKIRVING, ARCHIBALD (1749–1819), painter, son of Adam Skirving [q. v.], author of ‘Johnnie Cope,’ was born near Haddington in 1749. After studying both in Rome and London, he settled in Edinburgh, where he obtained some fame as a portrait-painter. His most successful portraits were executed in crayon. The best known is his crayon portrait of Robert Burns, executed partly from Nasmyth's famous portrait, and partly from Skirving's recollection of the poet, whom he met, it is said, at Edinburgh in 1786. This portrait was acquired by Sir Theodore Martin. Other of Skirving's sitters were Alexander Carlyle, D.D., of Inveresk, the mother of Jane Welsh Carlyle, Gavin Hamilton, Isabella Fraser-Tytler, Professor Dugald Stewart, and Dr. John Hunter, principal of St. Andrews University. Skirving was eccentric, and did not pursue his art industriously. In later life he seldom produced more than one picture a year, his price ranging about one hundred guineas. He died suddenly at Inveresk in 1819, and was buried at Athelstaneford churchyard. Some of his portraits are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

 SKOGAN, JOHN (fl. 1480), jester. [See under or ]

 SKOT. [See .]

 SKRINE, HENRY (1755–1803), traveller, born in 1755, was the son of Richard Dickson Skrine of Warleigh Manor, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Tryon of Collyweston, Northamptonshire. The family resided at Warleigh since 1634. Henry entered Christ Church, Oxford, on 24 Jan. 1774, and graduated B.C.L. in 1781. Becoming a member of Lincoln's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1782.

Skrine chiefly spent his time in travelling through Great Britain, and in recording his experiences. The records of his expedition to the north of Scotland in 1793 are of especial interest, for at that period the country was little known. He died at Walton-on-Thames in 1803, having been twice married. By his first wife, Marianne, eldest daughter of John Chalié of Wimbledon, Surrey, he had one son, Henry. By his second wife, Letitia Harcourt of Dany-Park, near Crickhowell in Brecon, he had two sons—John Harcourt and Thomas—and three daughters: Isabella, Henrietta, and Catherine.

He was the author of: 1. ‘Three Tours in the North of England and in Scotland,’ London, 1795, 4to. 2. ‘Two Tours through Wales,’ London, 1798, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1812. 3. ‘Rivers of note in Great Britain,’ London, 1801, 8vo.

 SKUISH or SKEWES, JOHN (d. 1544), lawyer and chronicler, was the son of John Skewes of Skewes in St. Wenn, Cornwall, who married Joan, daughter of Richard Tomyowe, and was probably born at Skewes. He went to Oxford University, matriculating either at Hart Hall or Exeter College, but does not seem to have taken a degree. Wood, in translating the Latin words of Pits, praises his ‘happy genie, accompanied with industry, prudence, and dexterity.’

Skewes adopted the profession of the law, and became a member of Lincoln's Inn. In 1514 he had the privilege of wearing his hat in the king's presence. He entered the household of Cardinal Wolsey, and was admitted to his private counsels, being presumably one of the ‘four counsellours learned in the lawe of the realm’ who dwelt in his house (, Wolsey, ed. 1827, p. 100). In May 1523 he was entered in the subsidy-roll of the cardinal's officials for an assessment of 100s. Christopher, lord Conyers, granted to him and others in 1527 certain property for Wolsey's benefit; he was appointed in June 1529 a member of the commission to adjudicate on cases in chancery committed to them by the cardinal; and in the same month the bishop of Bangor complained of his action ‘as one of Wolsey's servants of the law.’

Skewes was the owner by inheritance and