Birth and Early Life
Joseph Skipsey was born in Percy Village (generally known after the name of the colliery Percy Main), in the Parish of Tynemouth on 17 March 1832. His father Cuthbert, an overman at Percy Main Colliery, and mother, Isabella, had many children, on which Joseph was the eighth.
Joseph Skipsey faced an early tragedy when his father, Cuthbert, was shot dead on 8 July 1832.. On the Sunday evening, an ”affray” occurred between a group of miners and special constables. The reason seems to have been forgotten, but Cuthbert Skipsey, an overman and someone who the pitmen would look up to, stepped forward in an attempt to defuse the situation. Unfortunately one of the specials, George Weddell, misunderstood his intentions, pushed him away and shot him with his pistol. Weddell was arrested, tried, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to six months hard labour.
Like many children of that era, Joseph Skipsey started work in the local pit. He started at the age of seven as a trapper., teaching himself to read and write using pieces of discarded newspaper, adverts etc. progressing to some of the classical British authors and then to write his own stories, poems and later songs.
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