Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
Diana Skipwith was the daughter of Sir Henry Skipwith, Knight and 1st Baronet of Prestwold, Leicestershire and his first wife Amy, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh, near Wye, in the County of Kent.
Sir Henry's birth and baptism at Prestwold is recorded in the Parish Register, his birth being on 21 March 1589 and his baptism on 29 March 1590 (the New Year in those days starting on 25 March.
The claim that Amy was born at Prestwold is invention. She was, in fact, born at Olantigh on 6 August 1591.
Sir Henry and Amy married at Olantigh on 18 July 1609, not as some guess 'abt. 1616'.
Amy died in 1631 and was buried at Prestwold on 7 September 1631 (Parish Register).
Sir Henry married his second wife, Blandina Acton in London on 2 May 1639. They had no children.
Some people give Sir Henry's year of death as 1622 - another guess/invention. He died, in fact, in 1655 and was buried at Stapleford, Leicestershire, on 7 November 1655. Blandina died in London in 1660.
Sir Henry and Amy had seven children whose births and baptisms are all recorded in the Prestwold Parish Register.
Among the children were Diana, born 27 May and baptised 13 June 1621, and Sir Grey (3rd Baronet) born 13 January and baptised 1 February 1622.
Now to the fact and fantasy:
Diana and Sir Grey both emigrated to Virginia sometime after the Civil War in England.
The exact date of their emigration is not known, but it is usually given as between 1652 and 1655.
Diana is said to have married Edward Dale (or Major Edward Dale) for whom sites like RootsWeb give various dates of birth, some claiming an actual date of 6 April 1620 at Sefton, Lancashire.
This is pure invention/fantasy, as no record has actually been found of the place or date.
Some people claim that Edwar and Diana married in England where they also had a daughter Katherine.
This also is invention/fantasy as no record of their marriage in England or the birth of a daughter has been found. The claim by a few people that Katherine was born at Prestwold is pure invention.
Edward Dale obtained the title Major for services in Virginia.
As reported in a previous message recently posted on the RootsWeb message board, Diana never had the title 'Lady'. The daughters of Knights and Baronets had no title.
Documentary evidence shows that Diana and Edward were married in Virginia sometime between 7 November 1655 and 9 June 1660. Up until the first date Diana was signing herself Diana Skipwith; After the second date she signed herself Diana Dale.
Documentary evidence also shows that Katherine Dale, born 1652 (sometimes called Katherine Dale Carter because of her marriage into the Carter family) could not (because of her birth date) have been the daughter of Edward Dale and Diana Skipwith but that she must have been the daughter of Edward Dale by marriage to a former wife whose name is not recorded. Documents refer to her as the "eldest daughter" of Edward Dale.
Since Katherine Dale Carter was not descended from Diana Skipwith then the claim that Katherine and thence the Carter was descended from English Royalty through the marriage of Sir William Skipwith (1488-1547) to his second wife Alice Dymoke (whose father was 8th in line from Edward I) is a fantasy.
Sadly, family fantasies/myths are easy to create, but are very hard to kill off!
It is interesting to see the sites of the few who are honest enough to quote the information about the parentage of Katherine Dale, but then go on to give the Carter ancestry back through Diana Skipwith to English Royalty, as though it were fact.
Genuine genealogy is about documented facts, not about the repetition of family myths and fantasies.
Martin Wood
More Replies:
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Re: Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
William DeFord 2/06/12
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Re: Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
William DeFord 2/06/12
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Re: Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
Donna-Sue Howatson 2/09/12
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Re: Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
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Re: Diana Skipwith - Fact and fantasy
Donna-Sue Howatson 2/05/12