An individual fully entitled to the epithet “Worthy,” a learned clergyman, and author of some valuable works on divinity, was born in the parish of Derriagbly, near Lisburn, in February 1707. H is family was originally English. His grandfather, an engineer, having been sent over by Charles I to inspect the Irish fortifications, settled in that country, and suffered many privations in Cromwell’s time. His father appears to have been, in the reign of William III, a gunsmith, and afterwards a farmer and a tanner. He died in his fiftieth year, leaving a widow and ten children. Philip, when about ten years of age, was sent to Lisburn school, where, being at first negligent, his father reformed him by sending him into the fields, and treating him as a menial; after this he applied diligently, and soon displayed an ardent thirst for knowledge. On the decease of his father, which happened when he was at school, his mother had to encounter many difficulties in bringing up her numerous family, and he laudably thought it his duty to relieve her from the expense of one at least, and applied still more closely to his studies. From school, in June 1724, he entered as a sizer in Dublin University, where Dr. Delany was his tutor, and ever after, his friend.

Here he soon obtained the reputation of a scholar, and also distinguished himself by his skill in fencing, cudgelling, and other manly feats, as well as in some college frolics from which he did not always escape uncensured. His temper was warm, and he entertained that irritable’ sense of honour which frequently involved him in quae* rels. On one occasion he had a quarrel with a fellow-student, who happened to be connected with Dr, Baldwin the provost, and who insinuated that Skelton was a Jacobite, an accusation which he repelled by the most solemn declaration of his adherence to the Hanover family, Baldwin, however, was prejudiced against him, and endeavoured to keep him out of a scholarship, but, mistaking him for another of the same malice was disap-{544}pointed, and Skelton received this reward of merit in 1726. Baldwin, however, on other occasions did every thing in his power to make a college life uneasy to him; and Skelton, finding it impossible to gain his favour without disgraceful compliances, resolved to take his degree at the statuteable period, and quit the college. This, however, his enemy still endeavoured to prevent, and, on some idle pretence, stopped his degree.

Skelton’s only remedy was now to wait patiently till the next commencement, which would take place in about half a year. As the time approached, he contrived to foil the provost at his own weapons, and knowing his tyrannical and capricious temper, played him a trick, which his biographer relates in the following manner. A few days before the commencement, he waited on the provost, “and after paying his humble submission, said, ‘Mr. Provost, I am extremely obliged to you for stopping me of my degree last time, because it was what I wished for above all things, and I beg and beseech you may also stop me now, as my friends are forcing me to take it, and quit the college, contrary to my desire.’ ‘Ah, you dog,’ he replied, ‘what do you mean? do you wish to stay here contrary to your friends’ consent? Take your degree, sirrah, and quit the college, or I’ll make you smart for it.’ Skelton then began to cry, and whine, and sob, saying how greatly distressed he was at getting this unfavourable answer. ‘Don’t be growling here, sir,’ he said, ‘but go about your business, I’ll not agree to your request, you shall take your degree in spite of you, sirrah.’ Upon this, Skelton, with sorrowful countenance, though with joy at his heart, walked grumblingly out of the room.” The consequence of this was, that he commenced B.A. in July 1728, and had his name taken out of the college books, May 31st following, two years before the natural expiration of his scholarship. Notwithstanding this treatment, he always spoke of Dr. Baldwin as in many respects an excellent provost. He was ordained iu 1729, and obtained a curacy. In {545} 1732, he was nominated to the curacy of Monaghan, where his life was most exemplary, and his preaching efficacious. It was said, that the very children of Monaghan, whom he carefully instructed, knew more of religion at that time, than the grown people of any of the neighbouring parishes, and the manners of his flock were soon greatly improved, and vice and ignorance retreated before so powerful an opponent. His charities were extraordinary, for all he derived from his curacy was £40 of which he gave £10 a year to his mother, and for some years a like sum to his tutor, Dr. Delany, to pay some debts he had contracted at college. The rest were for his maintenance and his charities, and when the pittance he could give was insufficient for the relief of the poor, he solicited the aid of people of fortune, who usually contributed according to his desire, and could not indeed refuse a man who first gave his own before he would ask any of theirs. His visits to the gaols were also attended with the happiest effects. On one remarkable occasion, when a convict at Monaghan, of whose innocence he was well assured, was condemned to be hanged within five days, he set off for Dublin, and on his arrival was admitted to the privy council, which was then sitting. Here he pleaded for the poor man with such eloquence, as to obtain his pardon, and returned with it to Monaghan in time to save his life. In order to be of the more use to his poor parishioners, he studied physic, and was very successful in his gratuitous practice, as well as by his spiritual advice, and was the means of removing many prejudices and superstitions which he found very deeply rooted in their minds.

His fame, however, both as a preacher and writer, his extraordinary care as an instructor of a parish, and his wonderful acts of charity and goodness, began, about 1737, to be the subject of conversation, not only in the diocese of Clogher, and other parts of the North, but also in the metropolis; but still no notice was taken of him in the way of preferment. Dr. Sterne, the bishop of Clogher, {546} usually sent for him, after he had bestowed a good preferment upon another, and gave him, “by way of a sop” ten guineas, which Mr. Skelton frequently presented to a Mr. Arbuthnot, a poor cast-off curate, who was unable to serve through age and infirmity. At length, Dr. Delany, who had been his tutor at college, perceiving him to be thus neglected, procured for him an appointment to the curacy of St. Werburgh’s, in Dublin. This would have been highly acceptable to Mr. Skelton, and Dr. Delany would have been much gratified to place such a man in a situation where his merits were likely to be duly appreciated: it is painful to relate in what manner both were disappointed. When he was on the point of leaving the diocese of Clogher, Bishop Sterne perceiving that it would be to his discredit if a person of such abilities should leave his diocese for want of due encouragement, sent a clergyman to inform him, “that if he staid in his diocese he would give him the first living that should fall” Relying on this, he wrote to Dr. Delany, and the curacy of St. Werburgh’s was otherwise disposed of. The first living that fell vacant was Monaghan, where he had so long officiated, which the bishop immediately gave to his nephew, Mr. Hawkshaw, a young gentleman that had lately entered into orders! It would even appear, that he had made his promise with a determination to break it; for, when he bestowed the preferment on his nephew, he is reported to have said, “I give you now a living worth £500 a year, and have kept the best curate in the diocese for you, who was going to leave it: be sure take his advice, and follow his directions, for he is a man of worth and sense.” But Skelton, with all his “worth and sense”, was not superior to the infirmities of his nature. He felt this treacherous indignity very acutely, and never attended a visitation during the remainder of the bishop’s life, which continued for a series of years; nor did the bishop ever ask for him, or express any surprise at his absences. Under Mr. Hawkshaw, however, he lived not unhappily, Mr. Hawkshaw submitted to his instruction, and; fol-{547}lowed his example, and there was often an amicable contest in the performance of their acts of duty and charity.

In 1742, he accepted the office of tutor to the late Earl of Charlemont; but, owing to a difference with his lordship’s guardian, soon resigned his charge, and returned to his curacy.

On the death of Dr. Sterne, the see of Clogher was filled by Dr. Clayton, author of the “Essay on Spirit,” a decided Arian; and between him and Skelton there could consequently be no coincidence of opinion, or mutuality of respect. In 1748, Mr. Skelton having prepared for the press his valuable work, entitled "Deism revealed," he conceived it too important to be published in Ireland, and therefore determined to go to London, and dispose of it there. On his arrival, he submitted his manuscript to Andrew Millar, the bookseller, to know if he would purchase it, and have it printed at his own expense. The bookseller desired him, as is usual, to leave it with him for a day or two, until he could get a certain gentleman of great abilities to examine it. Hume is said to have come accidentally into the shop, and Millar shewed him the MS. Hume took it into a room adjoining the shop, examined it here and there for about an hour, and then said to Andrew, “print" By this work Skelton made about £200. A few months after its publication the Bishop of Clogher, Dr. Clayton, was asked by Sherlock, Bishop of London, if he knew the author. “O yes, he has been a curate in my diocese near these twenty years.” - "More shame for your lord ship,” answered Sherlock, “to let a man of his merit continue so long a curate in your diocese.” After a residence at London of about six months, during which he preached some of the sermons since published in his works, Mr. Skelton returned to his curacy in Ireland, and in 1750, a large living became vacant in the diocese of Clogher. Dr. Delany and another bishop immediately waited on Bishop Clayton, and told him that if he did not give Skelton a living now, after disappointing them so often, they would take him out of his diocese. This, how-{548}ever, was not entirely effectual: Clayton could not refuse the request, but made several removals on purpose to place Skelton in the living of Pettigo, in the wild part of the county of Donegal, worth about £200 a year, the people uncultivated, disorderly, fond of drinking and quarrelling, and, in a word, sunk in profound ignorance. He used to say, he was a missionary sent to convert them to Christianity, and that he was banished from all civilized society. He often declared that he was obliged to ride seven miles before he could meet with a person of common sense to converse with. With such difficulties, however, Skelton was born to contend. He always had a conscientious feeling of the wants of his flock, with a strong impelling sense of duty. His biographer has given a very interesting account of the means, pious and charitable, which he took to meliorate the condition of his parish, which, for the sake of brevity, we must omit; suffice it to say, they were effectual; but his situation affected his mind in some degree, and he became liable to occasional fits of the hypochondriac kind, which recurred more or less in the after-part of his life.

In 1757, a remarkable dearth prevailed in Ireland, and no where more than in Mr. Skelton’s parish. The scenes of distress which he witnessed would now appear scarcely credible. He immediately set himself to alleviate the wants of his flock, by purchases of meal, &c. at other markets, until he had exhausted all his money, and then he had recourse to a sacrifice which every man of learning will duly appreciate. He resolved to sell his books, almost the only comfort he had in this dreary solitude, and relieve his indigent parishioners with the money. Watson, a bookseller in Dublin, who had advertised them for sale without success, at last bought them himself for £80 and immediately paid the money. Soon after they were advertised, two ladies, Lady Barrymore and a Miss Leslie, who guessed at Skelton’s reason for selling his books, sent him £50 requesting him to keep his books, and relieve his poor with the money; but Skelton, with{549} many expressions of gratitude, told them he had dedicated his books to God, and he must sell them; and accordingly both sums were applied to the relief of his parishioners. Every heart warms at the recital of such an act of benevolence, and all reflections on it would lessen the impression. One other circumstance may be added. The bookseller sold only a part of the books in the course of trade, and those that remained, Mr. Skelton, when he could afford it, took from him at the price he sold them for, but insisted on paying interest for the sum they amounted to, for the time Mr. Watson had them in his possession. In 1758, Dr. Clayton, bishop of Clogher, died, and was succeeded by Dr. Garnet, who treated Mr. Skelton with the respect he deserved, and in 1759, gave him the living of Devenish, in the county of Fermanagh, near Enniskillen, worth about £500 a year, and thus he was brought once more into civilized society. When leaving Pettigo, he said to the poor, "Give me your blessing now before I go, and God’s blessing be with you. When you are in great distress, come to me, and I’ll strive to relieve you." In this new charge, he exerted the same zeal to instruct his flock both in public and private, and the same benevolence toward the poor which had made him so great a benefit to his former people. In 1766, the bishop of Clogher removed him from Devenish to the living of Fintona, in the county of Tyrone, worth at least £100 more than the other. He was now in the fifty-ninth year of his age. “God Almighty,” he used to say, “was very kind to me: when I began to advance in years and stood in need of a horse and servant, he gave me a living. Then he gave me two livings, one after another, each of which was worth a hundred a year more than the preceding. I have therefore been rewarded by him, even in. this world, far above my deserts.”

At Fintona, he shewed himself. the same diligent, kind, and faithful pastor as when on his former livings; but two circumstances occurred here very characteristic of the man. Having discovered that most of his protestant parishioners {550} were dissenters, he invited their minister to dine with him, and asked his leave to preach in his meeting on the next Sunday; and consent being given, the people were so pleased with Mr. Skelton, that the greater number of them quitted their own teacher. After some time, Skelton asked him how much he had lost by the desertion of his hearers? He told him £40 a year, on which he settled that sum on him annually. We mentioned in a former page, that Mr. Skelton had studied physic with a view to assist the poor with advice and medicines. By this practice, at Fintona, he found that Dr. Gormly, the physician of the place, lost a great part of his business; on which Skelton settled also 40£ a year on him.

In 1770, he published his works by subscription in 5 vols. 8vo. for the benefit of the Magdalen charity. In his latter days, when the air of Fintona became too keen for him, he passed some of his winters in Dublin, and there was highly valued for his preaching, which, in the case of charities, was remarkably successful. During a dearth, owing to the decline of the yarn manufactory at Fintona, he again exhausted his whole property in relieving the poor, and again sold his books for £100. He said he was now too old to use them; bat the real cause was, that he wanted the money to give to the poor, and the year after he bestowed on them £60. It waa one of his practices to distribute money, even in times of moderate plenty, among indigent housekeepers, who were struggling to preserve a decent appearance. He was also the kind and liberal patron of such of their children as had abilities, and could, by his urgent application and interest, he advanced in the world.

His infirmities increasing, after fifty years labour in the ministry with a diligence without parallel, he now found himself incapable any longer of the discharge of his public duties, and in 1780, took his final leave of Fintona, and removed to Dublin, to end his days. Here he received great respect from many of the higher dignitaries of the church, and in 1781, the university offered him the degree {551} bf doctor of divinity, which he declined. In 1784, he published by subscription a sixth volume of his works, and in 1786, he published his seventh volume. In the same year, he also published a short answer to a catechism, written by an English clergyman, and used at Sunday schools, which he supposed to contain an erroneous doctrine with respect to the state of men after death, and sent a copy to all the bishops of England and Ireland. The Archbishop of Dublin was so convinced by it, that he stopped the use of the catechism in his diocese.

Mr. Skelton died May 4, 1787, and was buried near the west door of St. Peter’s church-yard. His character hat been in some degree displayed in the preceding sketch taken from his “Life,” by the Rev. Samuel Burdy, 1799, 8vo. With the exception of some oddities of on- duct and expression, in which he somewhat resembled Swift and Johnson, his life was truly exemplary in all its parts, and his writings deserve to be held in higher estimation.