Joseph Skipsey - Later Life

Later Life

His first volume of his own works was published in Morpeth in 1859, a copy of which came to the attention of James Thomas Clephan, at that time editor of the “Gateshead Observer”, a relatively new newspaper and the first in Gateshead When told by Skipsey of his dire situation, Clephan obtained a job for him at Hawks Crawshay and Son ironworks in Gateshead. All copies of this publication appear to have been lost,

Following the death of one of his children, Skipsey moved to Newcastle in 1863 and became an assistant Librarian at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne for a short time. The job did not seem to suit him, and as the pay was poor, he returned back to a job in the pits, this time at Backworth, where he remained until 1882.

By now he was 50 years old and starting to feel his age, and so when a position of caretaker became vacant at a new Board School at Mill Lane, Newcastle, he applied for, and won the post. This school was very successful and grew in size, until the workload became too much for him and his wife

In September 1888 he moved to the position of Porter at the newly extended Armstrong College, but even this was hardly the job for a man of letters.

He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1889 after he and his wife were appointed joint custodians of Shakespeare's Birthplace, being chosen from a list of 132 applicants. After less than two years he becoming disenchanted with his job which (he confided in a letter not to be opened until after his death) involved dealing with relics which had “no definite history” and having to “perpetuate error and fraud” on the visitors and general public. He and his wife returned to Tyneside where they lived off his pension, residing, in turns, at the homes of their surviving children.