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1. Thomas Skillman was born about 1637 in Rotherheigh(?), Surrey, Eng.. He died about 1697 in Newtown(Maspeth Kills), Queens, NY. Ancestral file says died 4/1/1699. He was buried on 4 April 1699 in Newtown(Maspeth Kills), Queens, NY. His SOA Number is 1. Sailed from Portsmouth, England on May 15, 1664 with Colonel Richard Nichols. Their frigate, GUINEA, anchored August 26, 1664 at Nyack, near Gravesend Bay. 4 ships, 92 guns, 450 men settled the Dutch/English dispute, bloodlessly. New Netherlands became New York under Colonel Nichols. Thomas Skillman settled in Newtown, Long Island. Inventory of his estate is dated May 4, 1676. From SOA:
b. 1635-40. Soldier under Col. Richard Nicolls in Expedition of Duke of York, ordered by the King, Feb. 25, 1664, sailed from Portsmouth, May 15, and dropped anchor in the harbor of Nieuw Amsterdam (near present Fort Hamilton [ed. Brooklyn, next to Verrazano Narrows Bridge]), Aug. 18, same year. After the surrender he stayed in this country and became "inhabitant and freeholder" at Newtown (L. I.), under Nicolls' Patent of Jan. 23, 1666. Served in Esopus War; honorably discharged April 6, 1668. (See Introduction, ante). In 1669 he m. Sara, dau. of John Petit, Newtown, of whom Huntingdon (Hist. of Stamford) says: "John Petet was here (Stamford, Ct.) early, and had children recorded to him before 1650. Inventory, dated 5, 4, 1676, made by Richd. Law and Francis Bell, mentions his widow, Sarah (Scofield), two sons (names not given), and daus. Sarah, Mary, and Bethia. Richd. Law appointed guardian of his (John Petet's) children in a court of magistrates, the Govr. being present, 14, 4, 1662. Debrow Pettit here (Stamford) in 1657. Name afterward spelled Petit." Rev. Samuel Orcutt (Hist. of Stratford and Bridgeport, p. 103) says: "John Pettit was in Roxbury in 1639, and at Stratford in 1651. Probably soon removed to Stamford, and thence to Newtown, L. I." John Petit and Sarah Scofield, his wife, were the parents of Sara, wife of Thomas Skillman. Thomas Skillman and Sarah Scofield Petit were married in 1669 in Stamford, Fairfield, CT. Sarah Scofield Petit was born about 1648 in Newtown(Maspeth Kills), Queens, NY. She died about 1704 in Newtown(Maspeth Kills), Queens, NY. She was buried about 1704 in Newtown(Maspeth Kills), Queens, NY. Of Dutch or Huguenot lineage Thomas Skillman-22 and Sarah Scofield Petit-23 had the following children: |