SKELTON, WILLIAM (1763–1848), engraver, was born in London on 14 June 1763. He studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and was a pupil first of James Basire [see under Basire, Isaac, (1704–1768)], and later of William Sharp [q. v.] He became an engraver in the line manner, and was employed upon the illustrations of many of the fine publications of the day, notably Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ Macklin's Bible, Bowyer's edition of Hume's ‘History of England,’ Sharpe's ‘British Classics,’ ‘Lord Macartney's Embassy to China,’ 1797, the ‘Museum Worsleyanum,’ ‘Ancient Marbles in the British Museum,’ and ‘Specimens of Ancient Sculpture’ published by the Dilettanti Society, 1810. Skelton is best known by his many fine portraits of contemporary notabilities, chiefly from pictures by Beechey, the majority of which he published himself between 1790 and 1820; these include a series of George III and his sons, which became extremely popular; Robert Markham, D.D., 1790; Thomas Denman, M.D., 1792; Jean F. Lamarche, bishop of Leon, 1797; Henry, lord Mulgrave, 1808; Spencer Perceval, 1813; and Warren Hastings, 1817. One of his latest plates was a portrait of the queen of Würtemberg after P. Fischer, which he issued in 1828. Skelton executed in lithography portraits of himself and Sir W. Beechey. He resided for many years at Stafford Place, Pimlico, London, and afterwards in Upper Ebury Street, where he died on 13 Aug. 1848, having long previously retired from the profession. He was a man of great benevolence, and for fifty years served on the committee of the Female Orphan Asylum.
Joseph Skelton (fl. 1820–1850), brother of the above, was born in 1781 or 1782, and became an engraver exclusively of topographical and antiquarian subjects. Before 1819 he went to reside at Oxford, where he published ‘Oxonia Antiqua Illustrata,’ 1823; ‘Antiquities of Oxfordshire,’ from drawings by F. Mackenzie, 1823; ‘Pietas Oxoniensis, or Records of Oxford Founders,’ 1828; and ‘Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour from the Collection at Goodrich Court from the Drawings, and with the Descriptions of Dr. Meyrick,’ 2 vols. 1830. He also engraved the heading to the Oxford almanacks for the years 1815 to 1831, from drawings by F. Mackenzie and C. Wild; and executed a set of fifty-six etchings of the antiquities of Bristol after H. O'Neill. Later Skelton settled in France, where he engraved many of the plates to Gavard's ‘Galeries Historiques de Versailles,’ 1836; Vatout's ‘Le Château d'Eu,’ 1844; and Girault's ‘Les Beautés de la France,’ 1850. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1825, but his name disappeared from the lists in 1844.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Stanley; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33404); Gent. Mag. 1849, i. 324; Universal Cat. of Books on Art.]
SKENE, JAMES (1775–1864), friend of Sir Walter Scott, second son of George Skene of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen, and his wife Jean Moir, was born at Rubislaw on 7 March 1775. The family descended from Thomas, brother of Sir George Skene, a Danzig merchant who, returning to Scotland with a fortune, bought the estate of Rubislaw, was provost of Aberdeen for nine years prior to the revolution of 1688, and died in 1707. Sir George left Rubislaw to George Skene, the grandson of his brother Thomas, and James's father. George Skene died in the year following the birth of his son James, and in 1783 his widow settled in Edinburgh, with a view to the education of her seven children. James attended the Edinburgh high school. An elder brother dying in 1791, he became heir of Rubislaw. When twenty-one he went to Germany for further study, and, returning to Edinburgh, was admitted to the Scottish bar in 1797. Then began his friendship with Sir Walter Scott, whom he attracted by his knowledge of German literature. Both were ardent horsemen, and each loved natural scenery in his own way. In 1797 Skene became cornet of the Edinburgh light horse, the regiment largely organised by Scott, who was himself its quartermaster, secretary, and paymaster. Skene (said Scott) ‘is, for a gentleman, the best draughtsman I ever saw’ (Familiar Letters, i. 44). The dedication to Skene of the introduction to ‘Marmion,’ canto iv, is charged with reminiscences of their common interests.
In 1802 Skene revisited the continent and stayed several years. Greenough, president of the Geological Society of London, whose influence stimulated his friend's geological tastes, was his travelling companion for a time, and he became a member of the Geological Society. Returning to Edinburgh in 1816, he joined various literary and scientific societies, which he did much to improve. In 1817 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was for long the curator of its library and museum. He helped to stir the Scottish Society of Antiquaries into new life. For many years he was secretary to the board of trustees and manufactures, actively fostering the taste for art in Scotland. All along he was in constant
