Skillitt

This interesting surname of English origin with variant spellings Skillitt, Skullett, Skyllett, etc., is a metonymic occupational name for a maker of skillets, deriving from the Middle English "skelet" meaning "skillet". Job descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation and later became hereditary. The surname dates back to the early 14th Century, (see below). Church records include Elisabethe Skullett who married Randal Hatton on January 27th 1555 in St. Margaret's, Westminster, Susan, daughter of Richard Skyllett who was christened on January 25th 1589 in St. Giles Church, Cripplegate, London, and Alice, daughter of John and Anne Skillitt, who was christened in February 1703 in St. Botolph's without Aldgate, London. One Sarah Skillett married Georg Bollard in Lincolns Inn Chapel, Holborn, London, on June 15th 1710. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Skelete which was dated 1332, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.