2. Thomas² Skillings Jr (Thomas¹) (#4144) was born in Salem, Essex, MA 14 Nov 1643.⁽¹⁹⁾ poss Salem, Essex, MA; see Salem recs; Essex Q. Ct. Rec. i:93 - or could be Falmouth, Barnstable, MA Thomas died by 30 Dec 1676 in Salem, Essex, MA, at 33 years of age.⁽²⁰⁾ age 33y; a refugee from the Indian wars; d early leaving two sons His body was interred 30 Dec 1676 in Salem, Essex, MA.⁽²¹⁾ Sargent says 30 Dec 1676 is his burial date; not death date as mentioned elsewhere....ME/NH Gen Dict says "d. at Salem, a refugee, 30 Dec. 1676"

Alan P. Lundstedt says he died in Falmouth, Cumberland, ME - need to check.

He married Mary Lewis in Falmouth, Cumberland, ME, c1669.⁽²²⁾ AF says marriage of Thomas and Mary was 1654; however, that is Mary's birth date..... - need to make corrections to AF

(Mary Lewis is #4146.)

Mary was born 9 May 1657 in Falmouth, Cumberland, ME.⁽²³⁾ 1654??? Casco Bay?? Mary was the daughter of George Lewis III and Ann Awards.

Mary died aft 1735 in Salem, Essex, MA.⁽²⁴⁾ in her "eighties"

NOTE: ME/NH Gen Dict and MHGR (Lapham's Skillings Family Notes) say d aft 1732

She resided in Salem, Essex, MA 1731-1732.⁽²⁵⁾ age 78 years AFNs: N60K-NV

MHGR lists a son Joseph; Wm Sargent does not.

Abstract from Skillings 8 Generations, pp 10-12:

On 27 Mar 1732 in Salem, MA, May (aged abt 78y) deposed that she "lived in Back cove at Falmouth from her first remembrance of anything, till she was about 22 years old, and she moved from thence for fear of the Indians in the first war ..."

After Thomas Skillings Jr's death, Mary went to Greenland (north parish of Portsmouth, NH) where she m2 bef 1685 Jotham Lewis, s/o Philip Lewis, a prominent citizen of Greenland. He d bef 1698 as she was listed as a widow, living in Portsmouth, NH in 1698. They had four children:

1. John, blacksmith, Portsmouth 1711; Greenland 1713; Mendon 1714 2. James, carpenter, had grant 1714, sold out 1715 3. Philip, mariner m 15 Apr 1703 Martha Hender (poss a widow), d/o Samuel Burrill - 5 children 1703-1721 4. Hannah, m 1 Feb 1710/11 Topsfield Joseph Knight

Mary m3 22 Oct 1718 Salem, MA Henry Wilkins (his 2nd wife). She deposed at Salem in 1731 +/-77y (York Deeds 14:210); at Salem in 1732, and at Middleton, MA in 1735 +/-80y, regarding Eastern Claims re: land ownership in Portland before the first Indian War (originals in Willis Papers, MHS, Vol. N, pp 9 and 141). She d after 1735 in her eighties.

He resided in Casco Bay, Cumberland, ME bef Aug 1676.⁽²⁶⁾ Thomas's will was probated in Salem, Essex, MA, 14 Mar 1677. wife, Elizabeth administratrix

Of the children of Thomas and Deborah (?) Skillings, Thomas is given first in his father's will and was without doubt the eldest - York Records. Thomas fled to Salem in 1643 [this is date of birth; confusion???] because of the Indian Wars; Mary Lewis Skillings (d/o George Lewis) b. c 1644 Falmouth, York, ME, was in Salem in 1732 at age 78; she married 2nd Jotham Lewis, 3rd Henry Wilkinson. Thomas and Mary had one son, Benjamin (b 1665). Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder lists a second son, Joseph; however, William Sargent does not. For this reason, Joseph is not included in this chart.

Abstract from The Skillings Family by W.M. Sargent, p 5:

"Disagreeable though it be to perform genealogical executions, due regard for the facts makes one necessary here. thomas and Mary (Lewis) Skillings had no son Joseph, as is stated at p. 47 of the Recorder, but only one child Benjamin. In her depositions, the originals of which have been carefully preserved in the Willis Manuscripts, Mrs. Wilkins does attest her maternity to Benjamin by her former husband, Thomas Skillings, but nowhere does she claim other issue by him. James Ross, a neighbor, testifies that he has "known him from a child to have been the reputed child of the aforesaid Thomas," but adds nothing of any other children. Comparison of dates shows how unwarrantable is such assumption. Mrs. Wilkins, born in 1654, was not married before the first war, for she deposes that she "lived in Falmouth at Back Cove from her first remembrance of anything, till she was about 22 years old, and she moved from thence for fear of the Indians in the first war." Both her own and her future husbands' families fled to Salem, and are given in the list of the refugees taken in there in 1675-6. Marrying there, her husband Thomas Skillings had deceased before Dec. 30, 1676, when administration was granted to the widow Mary, and there is stong probability that this only child Benjamin was posthumous."

Thomas died at Salem, a refugee 30 Dec 1676; adm to her [Mary's] est in Essex Ct 14 Mar 1676/7. She m2 Jotham Lewis, m3 Henry Wilkins. 3 children born at Falmouth before she had to take refuge in Andrews garrison; apparently only Benjamin b ca 1671 survived, m Deliverance (+/- 70 in May 1752). He was buried 11 Dec 1764 [NOTE: Dates don't match]. Children all baptized at Greenland, NH 1717: Isaac, Benjamin, Lydia, Mary, Jean.

Abstract from ME/NH Gen Dict, pp 636-637:

3 THOMAS(2), Falmouth. Lists 3 (p. 45), 222bc, 224, 93. John Allicet sued him in Suff. ct. in Oct. 1676 for wages for making his fish at Cape Sable. He m. Mary Lewis(4), d. at Salem, a refugee, 30 Dec. 1676; adm. to her in Essex ct. 14 Mar. 1676-7. Inv. by Francis Neale and Henry Williams, incl. personal prop. at Salem; goods left at Boston, incl. 2 guns, 2 Ind. swords, 2 or 3 lbs. of feathers, 60 lbs. of shot; at Piscataqua, molasses, salt and a bear-skin. She m. 2d Jotham Lewis(10), m. 3d Henry Wilkins, and depos. at Salem in Sept. 1731, +/-77 (Y.D. 14:210) and in Mar. 1732 +/-78; of Middleton, depos. in June 1735, +/-80. Three ch. were b. at Falmouth, bef. she had to take refuge in the Andrews garrison. Appar. only Benjamin, b. +/-1671, survived.

Abstract from Skillings 8 Generations, pp 10-12:

Thomas2 Skillin, Jr (Thomas1) of Falmouth, ME and Salem, MA, b Nov 1643 Salem, MA (VRs). Prior to 1671 he m Mary Lewis (b abt 1654 Falmouth), d/o George Lewis, of "Lewis his neck, East Deering" and Ann Ross [I think her name is Ann Awards].

Thomas had a farm at Back Cove near his father's farm (separated by two other farms), which farm his son, Benjamin returned to abt 1717 when Falmouth was being resettled after the Indian hostilities had subsided. The deed to this farm was presumably destroyed with the other Casco (ME) records by the Indians.

Thomas Skilling was listed as a refugee in List 224, Aug 1676, original petition of refugees from Casco on an island praying to send a vessel to fetch off the people, not over a dozen men with many women and children ... (Suffolk Court Files 2606, pub in Noyes, p 21). Thomas was sued by John Allicet in Suffolk Court Oct 1676 for wages for making his fish (cutting, salting, and drying fish on racks) at Cape Sable (Noyes, p 636).

By Aug 1676 the family had fled to the garrison on Cushing's Island. Then, after Oct 1676, they were in Salem. Thomas d there bef 30 Dec 1676, age 33y. Mary administered Thomas' estate in Essex Court 14 Mar 1676/7; inventory by Francis Neale and Henry Williams (Noyes, p 636).

Charles T. Libby's weight of authority letter on the number of children by Thomas and Mary states: "... a deposition is found on record by the widow of Thomas Skillin, Jr. in which she testifies that she was a married woman with three children at the time the inhabitants in 1676 fled to the garrison on Cushing's Island to escape the Indians." Based on this, one would assume there were only three children, only one of whom survived - Benjamin. Thomas and Abigail were the other two. [However, some writers give a third son, John. I have not included him in this lineage, but am open for proof of his parentage and place in this genealogy.]

William Sargent has several errors in his discussion of the two Benjamins (this son and his uncle, brother of Thomas), so most of it can be disregarded. He does, however, establish Mary as Benjamin's mother. Dorothy Skillings has concluded that all the references to Benjamin in Falmouth refer to the son of Thomas and Mary, and that his uncle Benjamin, who was in Marblehead in 1719, did not return to Falmouth after probably leaving with his mother, Deborah in 1668, when she married George Hadley and moved to Ipswich.

Thomas Skillings Jr and Mary Lewis had the following children:

8 i. Abigail³ Skillings (#28359) was born in Falmouth, Cumberland, ME 18 Nov 1670.⁽²⁷⁾

+ 9 ii. Benjamin Skillings was born c1671.

10 iii. Thomas Skillings III (#28358) was born in Falmouth, Barnstable, MA Nov 1673.⁽²⁸⁾ Lapham says his name is Joseph

11 iv. John Skillings (#90972) was born in ME bef 1677.⁽²⁹⁾ NOTE: Lapham called 2nd son "Joseph," but this son is disputed on p.102; see Babson, Hist of Gloucester

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