Life

The son of Richard Skelton, a farmer, gunsmith tanner, he was born at Derriaghy, County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, in February 1707. His mother, Arabella Cathcart, was daughter of a farmer, and the tenancy, under Lord Conway, of the farm at Derriaghy was her marriage portion. Philip, who had five brothers and four sisters, was sent in 1717 to a Latin school at Lisburn

Lisburn

DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...

. His father died before he was eleven, and it was only by severe economy that his mother could educate her ten children.

In June 1724 he entered Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, as a sizar

Sizar

At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....

 with Patrick Delany as his tutor, and in 1726 was elected a scholar. He graduated B.A. in July 1728, and, after teaching in the endowed school of Dundalk

Dundalk

Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...

, was nominated curate to Samuel Madden

Samuel Madden

Samuel Madden was an Irish author. His works include Themistocles; The Lover of His Country, Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland, and Memoirs of the Twentieth Century. Dr...

 of Drummilly, County Fermanagh

County Fermanagh

Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....

, and ordained deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

 by John Stearne

John Stearne

John Stearne was an associate of Matthew Hopkins, a witchhunter active during the English Civil War. Stearne was known at various times as the witch–hunter, and "witch pricker". A family man and land owner from Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds, Stearne was 10 years older than Hopkins. He met...

, bishop of Clogher

Bishop of Clogher

The Bishop of Clogher is an episcopal title which takes its name after the village of Clogher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Following the Reformation, there are now parallel apostolic successions: one of the Church of Ireland and the other of the Roman Catholic Church.-History:Clogher is one...

, in 1729. He lived with Madden as tutor to his sons.

In 1732 he became curate at Monaghan

Monaghan

Monaghan is the county town of County Monaghan in Ireland. Its population at the 2006 census stood at 7,811 . The town is located on the main road, the N2 road, from Dublin north to both Derry and Letterkenny.-Toponym:...

, where the rector paid him £40 a year. He rode up to Dublin, and, appearing before the privy council, obtained the pardon of a condemned man unjustly convicted. He studied physic and prescribed for the poor, argued successfully with profligates and sectaries, persuaded lunatics out of their delusions, fought and trounced a company of profane travelling tinkers, and chastised a military officer who persisted in swearing. He became for a short time in 1742 tutor to James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont

James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont

James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont KP PC was an Irish statesman.The son of the 3rd Viscount Charlemont, he was born in Dublin, and succeeded his father as 4th Viscount in 1734...

, and in 1743 dedicated ‘Truth in a Mask’ to his pupil. A difference with Mr. Adderley, Lord Charlemont's stepfather, led to his return to his curacy in Monaghan.

In 1750 Skelton was given the living of Templecarn, a large parish in the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh, consisting of wild moorland surrounding Lough Derg

Lough Derg

Lough Derg is the name of two lakes in Ireland:* Lough Derg a large lake on the River Shannon, bordering counties Clare, Galway and Tipperary.* Lough Derg a small lake, a place of Christian pilgrimage....

, in which is St. Patrick's Purgatory

St. Patrick's Purgatory

St Patrick's Purgatory is an ancient pilgrimage site on Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, Republic of Ireland. According to legend, the site dates from the fifth century, when Christ showed Saint Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a pit, on Station Island that was an entrance to...

, the most famous place of pilgrimage in Ireland. There was no rectory house, and the emolument was about £200 a year. He more than once assembled his people to see him die, till one parishioner said, ‘Make a day, sir, and keep it, and don't be always disappointing us thus.’ There was a famine in 1757, and he sold his books to buy meal for the people. Lady Barrymore and Miss Leslie sent him £50, hoping he might keep his books, but he said the poor needed more than their price, and devoted the gift to them.

In 1759 he was given the living of Devenish

Devenish

Devenish may refer to:In geography:* Devenish, County Fermanagh, a parish in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland* Devenish, Victoria, a town in Australia* Devenish Island, an island in Northern IrelandIn people:...

, County Fermanagh, and lived in Enniskillen

Enniskillen

Enniskillen is a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is located almost exactly in the centre of the county between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,599 in the 2001 Census...

, which is contiguous. Here he had a large congregation. In 1766 he was presented to the living of Fintona

Fintona

Fintona is a village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second largest settlement in the Omagh District Council area, after Omagh itself. Its 2010 population was estimated to be 1,410.-History:...

, or Donacavey, County Tyrone

County Tyrone

Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

, and went to reside there. The people were intemperate and ignorant, and he reformed and instructed them. There was a famine in 1773, and he again sustained the poor; and in 1778 another famine at Fintona, attended by smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 and typhus

Typhus

Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...

, caused him to sell his library, which he had renewed.

In 1780 he came to live in Dublin. He died on 4 May 1787, and was buried near the west door of St. Peter's Church

St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin

St. Peter's Church was a former Church of Ireland parish church located in Aungier St. in Dublin, Ireland, where the Dublin YMCA building now stands. It was built on land that formerly belonged to the Whitefriars in Dublin...

.

Works

His first publication was an anonymous pamphlet in favour of Dr. Madden's scheme for premiums in Trinity College. He published several anonymous discourses against Socinians, and in 1736 an attack on Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...

's views of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, entitled ‘A Vindication of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Winchester,’ whom he ironically supposes incapable of having written the book attributed to him. His next publication, ‘Some Proposals for the Revival of Christianity’ (1736), was again ironical; Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

 was at first suspected of the authorship. In 1737 Skelton published ‘A Dissertation on the Constitution and Effects of a Petty Jury,’ endeavouring to show that such juries led to false swearing, and in 1741 ‘The Necessity of Tillage and Granaries,’ as well as an account in the Philosophical Transactions of an extraordinary development of caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s seen in Ireland in 1737.

In 1744 he published ‘The Candid Reader,’ a satire on the verse-making of Hill the mathematician, on the ‘Rhapsody of Lord Shaftesbury,’ and the Hurlothrumbo

Hurlothrumbo

Hurlothrumbo is an 18th century English nonsense play written by the dancing-master Samuel Johnson of Cheshire, and published in 1729. The spectacle incorporates both musical and spoken elements.Writing in 1855, Frederick Lawrence says of the play:...

of Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (dramatist)

Samuel Johnson was an English dancing-master and dramatist, known for his work Hurlothrumbo.-Life:Johnson was a native of Cheshire. In 1722 he gave a ball at Manchester, noted by John Byrom, and in 1724 he was in London with his fiddle...

. In the same year he issued ‘A Letter to the Authors of the Divine Analogy and the Minute Philosopher,’ and in 1745 ‘The Chevalier's Hopes,’ a paper in which he displays Whig principles. He went to London in 1748 to publish ‘Ophiomaches, or Deism Revealed.’ Andrew Millar

Andrew Millar

Andrew Millar was a British publisher.About 1729, he started business as a bookseller and publisher in the Strand, London. His own judgment in literary matters was small, but he collected an excellent staff of literary advisers, and did not hesitate to pay what at the time were considered large...

, the bookseller, showed the manuscript to David Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

, who advised him to print it. A second edition appeared in 1751, and the book was commended by Thomas Sherlock

Thomas Sherlock

Thomas Sherlock was a British divine who served as a Church of England bishop for 33 years. He is also noted in church history as an important contributor to Christian apologetics.-Life:...

. It contains eight conversations between Dechaine and Cunningham, deists; Shepherd, a clergyman, and Templeton, a layman, uncertain in his belief, but inclined to Christianity. Anthony Collins

Anthony Collins

Anthony Collins , was an English philosopher, and a proponent of deism.-Life and Writings:...

 and John Toland

John Toland

John Toland was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment...

, Thomas Chubb

Thomas Chubb

Thomas Chubb was an English lay Deist writer, born near Salisbury.Chubb regarded Christ as a divine teacher, but held reason to be sovereign in matters of religion, questioned religions' morality, yet was on rational grounds a defender of Christianity...

 and Shaftesbury, are sharply dealt with. In 1751 he published ‘The Dignity of the Christian Ministry: a Sermon.’

He again visited London in 1754, and published ‘Discourses Controversial and Practical on various subjects.’ In 1759 he published, as a reply to an Arian

Arian

Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...

pamphlet, ‘An Appeal to the Common Sense of all Christian People,’ and soon after a ‘Description of Lough Derg.’ In 1770 he published his collected works by subscription, in five volumes octavo, for the benefit of the Magdalen charity in Dublin. In 1784 he published ‘An Appeal to Common Sense on the subject of Christianity,’ thirteen hymns and a Latin poem, and in 1786 ‘Senilia,’ and a short account of ‘Watson's Catechism.’