Philip Skene
Papers, ca. 1765-1786

SC7282-7323

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Biographical Note:

Philip Skene was born in London, England, in February 1725; he died near Stoke, England, June 10, 1810. Skene was a Scottish officer in the British army, a New York state "patroon," and a figure in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolution.

Philip Skene entered the 1st Royal Regiment in 1736, under the auspices of his uncle, Captain Andrew Skene.  He was at the taking of Carthagena and Porto Bello, and at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Culloden. He left the regiment in 1750, and was afterward a captain in the 27th and 10th foot, and a major of a brigade. In the same year he married Katherine, heiress of the Heydens, of Mt. Heyden, County Wicklow, Ireland.  The couple had one son and two daughters.

In 1756 he arrived in the British colonies in North America, and was engaged under Lord Howe at the attack on Ticonderoga, and afterward under Lord Amherst at its capture, with that of Crown Point.  Left in command there he became convinced that the area was a good one for trade and settlement.  With a view to strengthening the British hold on Canada, he received a large grant of land on Lake Champlain in 1759, which he increased by purchases to the extent of about 60,000 acres, and founded the town of Skenesborough, (now Whitehall, New York). He was named lieutenant governor of the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, with the rank of colonel in the army.  He sold his commission in 1769 and became a resident of his new community.  Over the next few years he served as colonel of the local militia, judge, and postmaster; he established foundries and saw-mills, constructed and sailed vessels on the lake, and opened roads to Albany.

When the American Revolution began Skene's son Andrew was arrested as Crown Point and Ticonderoga were being seized. At the time Skene himself was returning from England; on hearing of the outbreak of the Revolution, his ship was diverted to Philadelphia. His arrival there alarmed the Continental Congress to the extent of appointing a committee headed by John Adams to look over his papers; after their report, he was sent to Connecticut under arrest.  Skene was exchanged for James Lovell in October 1776, after which he served a short time under Sir William Howe at New York, and then volunteered under General John Burgoyne, during whose campaign his horse was twice shot out from under him. He and his son acted as guides to the army from Canada. The British troops had for some time occupied Skenesborough and on their moving, General Frederick Haldimand ordered the community to be burned, lest it should become a danger in the hands of their opponents. Colonel Skene thus saw the fruits of an invested fortune and many years' labors perish before his eyes at his countrymen's hands.

The night before the capitulation of Saratoga, Colonel Skene, as it appears from one of his letters, went to General Burgoyne and told him that there was no need for capitulating; that, on condition that arms and baggage were abandoned, he would undertake to guide the army safely to Canada.

After the recognition of independence, Colonel Skene was in London, and intended to return and begin again as an American citizen. However, the state of New York accused him and his son of high treason, and confiscated their estates. After the war he returned to New York to attempt to recover his property, was unsuccessful, and went back to England. The British government in 1785 granted him a pension of £240 a year for life, and a sum of £20,000, with which he purchased the estate of Addersey Lodge, Northamptonshire. He died in 1810 at his home, and is buried in the chapel at Hartwell, Buckinghamshire, England.

His only son, Andrew Philip Skene, born March 25, 1753, entered the 5th Regiment of Dragoons in 1763.  He was graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, New York, in 1772, and transferred to the 6th Dragoons, and named major of a brigade, being the first subaltern who ever had held that post. He lost a separate estate near Skenesborough, was afterward a captain in the 9th Dragoons, and became a military paymaster. The last twenty-two years of his life were passed at Durham, in northeast England, where he died in February 1826.

Some historians have argued that Philip Skene was treated unfairly in the aftermath of the war.  In 1959 Whitehall school teacher Doris Begor Morton published a biography entitled Philip Skene of Skenesborough. She argued that Philip and Andrew Skene should not have lost their land. The basis of her argument was that on November 30, 1782, the Articles of Peace between Great Britain and the United States, signed in Paris, declared that there should be no more confiscations of land and that the estates of real British subjects should be returned to them. In January 1784 Congress ratified the articles. Philip and Andrew did not live in America after the Declaration of Independence, and therefore should have been considered real British subjects. In 1785 they requested the restoration of their lands but to no avail. For more information contact the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada.

Scope and Content Note:

Philip Skene's papers are mainly letters and documents relating to his settlement of Skenesborough in the Champlain Valley and his experiences as a loyalist during the American Revolution, including his capture and exchange as a prisoner of war. A significant amount of material deals with Skene's efforts to obtain compensation from the British government for the many losses he incurred as a result of the war.

Some of the papers relate to his son, Andrew Philip Skene, and bear his signature. That the father used his position to intervene on his son's behalf is apparent from several items in the collection.

One especially interesting document is a statement by British General William Howe, in which he writes: "I hereby certify that Philip Skene Esq., Lt. Gov. Commandant of Crown Point and Ticonderoga was detained by the Congress at Philadelphia in June 1775 and was afterwards sent by them to Connecticut in New England where he was confined in gaol, that in Sept. 1776 he was exchanged by me, for Mr. Lovel [sic] one of the Congress, that he joined the Army under my command, and acted with great zeal to his Majesties Service as Lt. Governor of Crown Point." It is signed, W. Howe, London (Item 7306).

Related to the above is Skene's own account of his capture, imprisonment and exchange (Item 7312).

Other noteworthy persons from the American Revolutionary period whose signatures appear in this collection are Gen. Lord Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797); Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne (1722-1792); Stephen Kemble (1740-1822); Lord William Wildman Shute Barrington (1717-1793); Lord Frederick North (1732-1792); Lord George Germain (1716-1785); and Gen. Sir William Howe (1729-1814).

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