John Skidmore - An Early Settler of Long Island

 When I decided to apply for membership in the National Society of New England Women (NSNEW), I went searching for an ancestor to join under.   It's a small society and a small section of the colonies to pick an ancestor from.  And for this Southern Girl you would think that would be impossible. but lucky  Mama's family, thru her mother, goes back to New England.  

My application for membership was approved in October 2025. In April of 2026, I was elected to be Vice President of the Cape Henry Colony of Virginia and will be installed in October, 2026.  

John Skidmore (1643–1680) 

John Skidmore was born on April 11, 1643 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Thomas and Ellen Skidmore and the only child born in British Colonial America.  

By 1662, he had settled in Jamaica, Long Island, where the town granted him the first lot by the highway on the condition that he serve the community as its blacksmith. Around that same time, he married Susanna Davis and they would eventually have 5 children.  Susanna was  the daughter of Fulk Davis.

pg 18

In January 1663/4, Skidmore’s name appeared among the Jamaica proprietors who signed a declaration of loyalty to King Charles II. At a time when Long Island remained under Dutch authority, these English settlers asserted their rights and vowed to defend the colony as loyal subjects of the Crown.

Skidmore became an active and visible member of the community: his name appears often in Jamaica’s town records, and in 1668 he was paid for his service as town clerk. He also served as clerk of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica.   In addition to his blacksmithing, Skidmore worked as a tobacco planter.

Records of the town of Jamaica, Long Island, NY 1656-1751

Got excited there for a few minutes thinking John Skidmore was performing some kind of witchcraft... Took me a minute to figure it out - apparently he was an Overseer of the Roads

( Hyghe Wayes- Highways).

In February 1678, while ill with smallpox and shortly after the death of his wife Susanna—likely from the same disease—he drafted his will, leaving his estate to their children. Though he recovered from the illness, he died a few years later at Jamaica.  He died before  July 7 1680 at the age of 37. An inventory of his estate valued his property, including land, at £127. "The three eldest children were to have leave to choose their own masters with the approval of the overseers of his will. The two youngest children, Joseph and Abigail, were to have £20 above their equal share of the estate towards their bringing up. The white calf given to Abigail and the black horse given to the boys by his wife before her death were confirmed to them."  This marked the close of his brief but industrious life as one of the early English settlers of Long Island.

I am descended from his daughter Abagail Skidmore who married Francis Muncy II.  They would eventually move from Long Island to Delaware. 

Here is the lineage for this family. The lineage goes through the first person listed.

• Thomas Skidmore - Ellen X (England/CT)
• John Skidmore - Susanna Davis  (MA/Long Island)
• Abagail Skidmore - Francis Muncy II (Long Island /Delaware)
• Nathaniel Muncy - Mary Bush (Long Island/ NC)
• Ruth Muncy - Daniel Rash (Delaware/NC)   Daniel is a Revolutionary War Patriot
• Asa Rash - Nancy Coleman (NC)
• Charles Rash - Lydia Cass (NC)
• Elizabeth "Betsy" Rash - Richmond Speaks (NC)
• Richmond Speaks - Bartha Malinda Rash (NC)
• Sarah Speaks - George Washington Doolittle (NC/NY)
• Irene Doolittle - Albert Holland East (VA/NC)
• Alice Pauline East - William Garnett Holt (NC/VA)
• Cathy Ann Holt - William Edward Sampson  (VA/CT)

As always, a quick Thank you to those who researched this ancestor before me and God Bless the programmer of ChatGPT which AI helped me write this in a more readable format.