Skipwith.—
"'Here lyeth the body of William Skipwith, Baronet, who deceased the 25th of February, 1764, aged fifty-six years. He descended from Sir Henry Skipwith of Prestwould, in Leicestershire, created baronet by King James I., was honoured with King Charles I.'s commission for raising men against the usurping powers, and proved loyal to his king, so that he was deprived of his estate by the usurper, which occasioned his and his sons' death, except Sir Gray Skipwith, grandfather of the abovesaid Sir William Skipwith, who was obliged to come to Virginia for refuge, where the family hath continued ever since.'
"Inscription copied from tombstone of Sir William, who lies buried at Greencroft, near Petersburg, Virginia."—See South. Messenger, vol. ix. p. 591.
I should be obliged for information as to Sir Henry.
T. Balch.
Philadelphia.
[Sir Henry Skipwith was created a baronet Dec. 20, 1622, and in 1629 obtained, jointly with Sir Thomas Walsingham, Knt., a grant of lands in the counties of Leicester, Derby, &c.; in 1631 a grant of free-warren for his lands in Leicestershire; in 1636 was high sheriff for the county; and in 1637 certain amerciaments against him on account of that office, which had been returned into the Court of Chancery, were certified to the Court of Exchequer. Heartily espousing the cause of Charles I., he was one of the Commissioners of Array for this county, and on May 28, 1645, had the honour of entertaining his sovereign at Cotes, after which he was fined 1114l. by the parliamentary sequestrators. He was the last of the family who resided at Cotes; and amongst his poems is "An Elegy on the Death of my never enough lamented master, King Charles I." The others are chiefly of a melancholy turn. Sir Henry, his second son, died soon after his father, unmarried; whereupon his title and estate went to his next brother Sir Gray, who, after the death of the king, went with several other gentlemen, to avoid the usurpation, over to Virginia, and there married, and left one son.—Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. p. 367., which also contains a pedigree of the family. Consult also Lloyd's Worthies, p. 649.]
College Battel.—What is the derivation of a word peculiar to the universities, battels: is it connected with batten?
S. A.
[In Todd's Johnson we read, "Battel, from Sax.
