Philip Wharton Skene (1725 - 1810)

Born 5 Feb 1725 in London, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Jun 1810 at age 85 in Stoke Goldington, Buckinghamshire, England

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Biography

Philip Wharton Skene was a Scotsman, born in London, England. He served with the British army in the New World. His father was James Skene, "a Jacobite who was captured at the Battle of Preston in 1715 and several times narrowly avoided execution; he died in 1736. His mother was Mary Ann Smith, the daughter of a Battersea minister. Skene's brother James was a surgeon for the East India Company; he died in 1780 in London.

Philip married Katherine Heyden, an heiress from Ireland, and they had three children: ^[1]

1. Andrew Philip (b. 1753)
2. Mary Ann Margaret (b. 1755)
3. Katherine (b. 1756)

Around 1765, he founded the town of Skenesborough, New York British Colony (now known as Whitehall Village) and around 1773-1775 was appointed by the British crown as lieutenant governor of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

His son Andrew was taken into custody during the American Revolutionary attack and capture of Fort Ticonderoga 10 May 1775 and was paroled to his father sometime after.

Philip and his son were held in West Hartford, Connecticut by the American Revolutionary forces until October 1776, when they were exchanged in a prisoner trade. Philip returned to England in 1777, where he was promoted to Colonel and sent back to the Colonies to recruit Loyalists. By 1779, his property in the Colonies was seized and he petitioned the British crown for compensation. Returning to England, he purchased property in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

He died at home in 1810.

Sources

1. ↑ http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Philip_Skene

See also:

• Philip Skene Papers, ca. 1765-1786 at NY State Library http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc7282-7323.htm
• http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Philip_Skene
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Skene
• List of inhabitants of Skenesborough during the period 1759-75:
• https://kenswhitehall.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/skenesborough-manuscript/
• 1773: Freeholders who signed a petition to have Skenesborough erected as a town in Charlotte County (name changed to Washington County after the Revolutionary War):
• Skenesborough Museum, https://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/4067 , accessed 21 Jun 2022.