SKINNER, DANIEL, son of Daniel Skinner, Mark Lane, London, merchant, and Frances, dau. of Robert Corbet, Edgmond, Shropshire; b.; adm.; KS 1666; in a letter written by him to Samuel Pepys in 1676 he states that he was at the School for seven years; described by his contemporary William Taswell (qv) as “proud and empty and void of learning”; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1670, adm. pens. 1 Jul 1670, scholar 1671, matr. 1670; BA 1673/4; MA 1677; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 2 Oct 1674, Major Fellow 23 May 1679 – c. 1685; acted as amanuensis to the poet John Milton 1673-4; was bequeathed by Milton the manuscripts of his Latin State Letters and The Treatise on Christian Doctrine; attempted to get Daniel Elzevier to print them in Amsterdam, but eventually handed them over to Sir Joseph Williamson (qv), then Secretary of State; the packet containing them was discovered in the State Paper Office at Whitehall in 1823 (Papers relating to Milton, Camden Soc. Pub., 1st series, lxxv); visited Barbados in 1680 and Nevis in 1681; in a letter written from Paris, dated 4 Feb 1682, Skinner congratulates Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston (qv), on his appointment as Ambassador to France, and mentions “the recollection I have of beginning my studies with Your Excellency at the famous school of Westminster” (HMC, Graham MSS, vii, 380); his sister Mary appears to have become Samuel Pepys’s mistress; living 1684/5. [will of Daniel Skinner, London, merchant, proved PCC 9 Feb 1685 (his father ?); will of Daniel Skinner, St. Paul, Covent Garden, gentleman, proved PCC 11 Oct 1697]
