The Rev. John Skinner (1772 – 1839) was a parish vicar and amateur antiquarian and archaeologist operating mainly in the area of Bath and the villages of northern Somerset in the early nineteenth century.
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Life [edit]
Skinner was born in Claverton and educated at Oxford,[1] before becoming vicar of Camerton, Somerset from 1800 to 1839. He excavated numerous antiquities, especially barrows, such as those at Priddy and Stoney Littleton; and he made visits for antiquarian purposes to many places.[2]
Writings [edit]
His journals (1803–34), published many years after his death, are reckoned to be an important historical document, and they are preserved at the British Library. He also left other manuscripts (The Diary Junction), and published accounts of a West Country tour (1797), Hadrian's Wall (1801) and the isle of Anglesey (1802). His tour of Wales in 1835, when he was 63, now consists of 4 bound volumes [3] comprising descriptive text (rather difficult to read) and nearly 750 sketches, an average of 15 a day, starting with coastal scenes taken when on the packet from Bristol to Swansea, landscapes, castles, abbeys, cromlechs, inscribed stones and towns, but rarely mansions. His obsession with Roman roads is reflected in the illustrations – any road which was reasonably straight was sketched and commented on.
Death [edit]
Skinner committed suicide by shooting himself in 1839, despite which he may have been buried in consecrated ground at Camerton.[1]
References [edit]
- ^ a b Thomas, Rod (2008). A Sacred landscape: The prehistory of Bathampton Down. Bath: Millstream Books. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-948975-86-8.
- ^ Coombs, Howard and Peter (eds), Journal of a Somerset Rector (OUP, 1971, 1984) pp 508-510 has a fill list of all his tours up to 1832.
- ^ British Library, Egerton Mss 3110-3113
- Coombs, Howard and Arthur N. Bax, eds (1930) Journal of a Somerset rector: John Skinner, A.M., antiquary, 1772-1839. Parochial affairs of the parish of Camerton, 1822-1832. British Library mss. nos. 33673-33728. London: John Murray. [Revised and enlarged edn entitled Journal of a Somerset rector, 1803-1834: parochial affairs of the Parish of Camerton British Museum manuscripts no. 33635-33728 & EG 3099F-3123F by Howard and Peter Coombs, Bath: Kingsmead 1971. New edn, same eds, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1984.]
- Jones, Roger (1999) John Skinner's Visit to the Channel Islands: Guernsey, August 1827. Review of the Guernsey Society (Spring 1999).
- Skinner, John (1803–34) Journals. MSS. British Library Add Mss, 33633-33728; subsequent tours are in British Library, Egerton Mss. 3099-3119
- Jones, Roger,(editor), West Country tour : being the diary of a tour through the counties of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in 1797 by John Skinner, (Ex Libris Press, Bradford on Avon, 1985). Based on British Library Add. Mss. 33635.
- Skinner, John, Transcript of a Ten Days Tour in Anglesey, 1802, published in Supplement to Archaeologia Cambrensis, July 1908, based on British Library Add. MSs. 33636; copy (of original)in National Library of Wales MS 21031.
Carlyle, Edward Irving (1885–1900). "Skinner, John (1772-1839)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
External links [edit]
- Rev. John Skinner at Somerset.gov.uk, accessed 11/05/2007
- Details of archives containing Skinner's papers, accessed 11/05/2007
- Details of Radstock Museum Exhibits, accessed 25/07/2008
- "The Good Man of Camerton", a recent (2009) novel based on John Skinner's life, by Gillian Garnham, accessed 24/11/2009 (Review, accessed 24/11/2009)
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