The Skeels family of Cambridgeshire

The most recent Skeels in my family tree was my 4x Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Skeels of Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire, England.

The 1841 Census for Swaffham Bulbeck in Cambridgeshire shows that my oldest Skeels ancestor, Job Skeels and his wife Elizabeth Richardson, were living at The Lordship in the village. Job is noted as a Fishmonger and was from somewhere other than Cambridgeshire.

Meanwhile, in the appealingly named Gutter Lane, their daughter Elizabeth is living with her husband John Levitt and seven of their eventual nine children.

A modern day descendant of the Skeels and Levitt family, Angela Ward, made a link with me recently and provided me with a lot of this information which I have been able to add to with my own research notes.

Skeels of Middlesex or Norfolk?

In 1841, Job Skeels appears not to have been born in Cambridgeshire, and he is noted as born in Brentford, Middlesex, England, at the time of the 1851 census. The only record I can find for the approximate period of birth points towards Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, and so his actual place of birth remains a mystery for now.

Variants of the Skeels surname

I have discovered a small number of variants of to the Skeels surname, including:

• Scales
• Skeel
• Skeels
• Skele
• Skell
• Skyoles

Skeels family connections

The Skeels family are linked to a couple of my ancestral families including:

• Levitt
• Richardson