Reverend Henry Skyren

Henry Skyren was born about 1729 in Whitehaven, England.  Not much is known about his upbringing, home, or family life.  It is likely that he grew up in a strongly religious household as he became an Anglican minister.  On June 2, 1760, Skyren was appointed by John Lincoln, the Lord Bishop of London, the office of curate in the Wimondly Parish Church in Hertfordshire, England.

Reverend Skyren was sent to Virginia in 1763, after three years at Wimondly, to take over as the rector of St. John’s Parish in King William County, Virginia.  He served in this position from 1764 until 1787.  He spread the gospel at St. John’s Church and Acquinton Church, both in King William.  It is said that he was a very powerful preacher and that when he gave his sermons at Acquinton Church, he drew such large crowds that some parishioners had to sit in the aisles, and some brought their own seats to hear him preach.  In 1769, he was appointed a trustee of “the Fund for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans of Clergymen.”

St. John’s Church, King William County, Virginia

As well as being the leader of the parish church, he also served as a tutor for some of King William County’s prominent families.  Often, one location would serve as a central place for families to send some of their children for an education at a nearby plantation.  He was employed at one time by a Colonel Corbin at Lanesville in King William.  Reverend Skyren also gained employment in the family of Colonel Bernard Moore of Chelsea, situated on the Mattaponi River in King William County.

In 1774, he married Lucy Moore, the daughter of his former employer, Colonel Bernard Moore and his wife, Anne Catherine Spotswood Moore.  In the course of their marriage, the Skyrens would have six children:  Robert, Elizabeth, Anne, John Spotswood, Maria, and Bernard.  Though their daughters married and had families, the sons never married.  The family for a time resided in the glebe house which was purchased for them by the St. John’s Church parish vestry.  As their family grew, Reverend Skyren purchase 558 acres of land adjoining Acquinton Church from James Quarles to settle his family on.

Acquinton Church, King William County, Virginia

Not long after his marriage in 1774, Reverend Skyren was witness to a changing colony with the advent of the events leading to the Revolutionary War.  By all accounts, he was a firm supporter of the patriot cause, though he was born and spent most of his life in England.  It had to be an interesting family dynamic.  His father-in-law, Colonel Bernard Moore was also a patriot.  On the other hand, his mother-in-law, Anne Catherine Spotswood was a staunch Loyalist.  Two of her sons even served as soldiers in the Revolution, on the side of the patriots.

Reverend Skyren and his family made it through the Revolutionary War unscathed.  With the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, there followed a decline in the Anglican church in the new country.  The Church of England was no longer the established church in the United States.  Along with independence came freedom of religion.  In 1787, Reverend Skyren was called upon to serve as the rector of what was then Elizabeth City Parish in the city of Hampton in Elizabeth City County.  His family remained behind in King William County.  Elizabeth City Parish and the parish church was renamed St. John’s in 1830 and is currently located in the city of Hampton, Virginia which was established as an independent city from Elizabeth City County in 1908.

Reverend Skyren died in 1795 in Hampton, Virginia.  He was buried in the churchyard at St. John’s Episcopal Church.  His tombstone inscription reads, “Sacred to the Memory of the Rev. Henry Skyrin Rector of Elizabeth City Parish; Born in White Haven, England A.D. 1729; Die in Hampton, Virginia, A.D. 1795.  This monument is erected by his surviving children, Elizabeth Temple & John Spotswood Skyrin.”  His wife, Lucy, inherited the land near Acquinton that she resided on and lived there until she died on September 26, 1819.  She was probably buried in the cemetery at Acquinton, but there is no visible grave marker.

Reverend Henry Skyren’s grave, St. John’s Episcopal Church Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia.

References

Du Bellet, Louise Pecquet.  Some Prominent Virginia Families.  Vol 2.  1907.  Reprint, Baltimore:  Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976.

Fontaine, William Winston and Spotswood Fontaine.  “Some Virginia Families—Moore, Bernard, Todd, Spotswood, etc.”  William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 19, no. 3 (January 1911): 177-184.

Harris, Malcolm Hart.  Old New Kent County: Some Account of the Planters, Plantations, and Places in New Kent County, 2 vols.  West Point, Virginia:  Malcolm Hart Harris, 1977.

Lewis, Gilbert Burnet.  “The Reverend Henry Skyring (1729-1795) and his family.”  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 54, no 2 (April 1946):  161-162.