Page 48 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

BooKs
Denmark and a Scotch man was Governor of ye castell and cittie and like a dissembling Scott cheateted Major Holmes, Mr Watkins and myself of 150 pounds worth of goods.’
the entertaining diary continues to recount his courtship, elopement and secret marriage with his first wife during the Commonwealth. Both his wives, Dorothy Parker of Anglesey Abbey and elizabeth, widow of thomas Hay, brought him their heritage of wealth. Yet when Fulwar died in 1677 the inheritance depended on the survival of a small toddler.
By good fortune, in the late 17th century his old diary was saved and used to keep the accounts for clothing his orphaned grandchildren, who became sir Fulwar skipwith, second Baronet of newbold Hall and Lady elizabeth Craven of Coombe Abbey.
The Mystery of the Whilton Stone is an attempt to show what the shield means and the significance of its heraldic display, linked mostly with land holdings in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. After following the life of the man who held this shield, the family is traced until the end of the line in 1790. the estate, but not the title, then passed to the American branch of the family, the skipwith Baronets of Prestwould, who had emigrated to become tobacco plantation owners in Virginia in the 1650s.
the American heir, sir gray skipwith had to wait 45 years before he could take up his inheritance, as widow selina, Lady skipwith, lived on until her 80th year. sir gray then had a mixed parliamentary experience, being welcomed with rapturous scenes when he supported the Reform Bill of 1832, but arousing serious opposition by his anti-slavery views. ‘Sir Gray Skipwith was born in America where his parents lived and died. His radicalism therefore only illustrates the power of early habits in a weak mind over education and experience.’
Readers looking for northamptonshire local history will have failed to find any so far, but the American born eighth Baronet of Prestwould, had twenty children. the eighteenth child was named Randolph and in 1856 he became Rector of Whilton in northamptonshire. It is through this connection that the carved stone came to this parish.
the Reverend Randolph skipwith’s forty year ministry made a great impact on Whilton and the later chapters of the story are focussed on the Rector in Victorian Whilton. He found much room for improvement in Whilton, particularly disapproving of the state of the church. It was Randolph who instigated the enlargement and reconstruction of st Andrew’s. He introduced methods of saving through the Friendly society, and improvements to literacy through supporting the village school and penny readings. He worked with the schoolmaster’s family
46