Nicholas Skeres - Early Life

Early Life

Skeres was born the second son of a merchant tailor, Nicholas Skeres senior, in March 1563, probably in the family's parish of All-Hallows-the-Less, near London Bridge. His father died when he was only three years old, however, leaving each of his two sons and his widow a third of his estate. In fact this included land in Yorkshire, the Skeres or Skyeres family having once lived at Skyeres Hall near Wentworth.

Despite his father's occupation, neither he nor his brother went to the Merchant Taylors school. On the other hand, he does seem to have been a law student at Furnival's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery, which would imply a reasonable level of education, and the relationships he apparently established with several well-known writers including Marlowe, would suggest it too.

On 7 July 1585, writing to Lord Burghley, William Fleetwood mentioned a "Nicholas Skeeres" among a number of "maisterles men & cut-purses, whose practice is to robbe Gentlemen's chambers and Artificers' shoppes in and about London". However, as Charles Nicholl argues, it seems unlikely that such a man would be employed in important government business as this Nicholas Skeres appears to have been a year later.