The Keillors, Stonemasons of Skelton

The village of Skelton-in-Cleveland is a lovely village in the northeast part of Yorkshire, England, near North Sea.

It is also the furthest back location to which we have documented the Keillor family, although surname maps suggest the Keillors are originally from Scotland.

 A few days before we left for our trip to the UK, I found this website, https://skeltonhistorygroup.wordpress.com, run by a group of individuals interested in the local history of the area. They had extracted names and dates from the parish registers which was very helpful. 

Using the “Contact Us” tab, I sent a brief
note of thanks and mentioned we hoped to
visit during our stay. In  the bustle of getting packed
I put it out of my mind. Within a day, I got a response
from Peter, who said we must be descended from
Thomas Keillor, stonemason, who had emigrated
to North America in the 1700s. He also said
he would be glad to give us a walking tour of
Skelton if we would let him know when we would be there.
How cool is that?!?

 On the way back from Glasgow, we set up to meet Peter in Church Lane, which leads to Old All Saints church. A gentleman who lives nearby unlocked the church for us and we spent a few minutes exploring until Peter arrived.

He came prepared with a booklet of documents, all pertaining to the Keillor family in the two generations they appear to have spent in Skelton. 

John Keillor and Ann Calvert were married in nearby Guisborough in 1723/24 (calendar issues!).  In 1725, he makes his first appearance in the records of the Skelton Church warden accounts for his assessments.

In 1730, he signed the church warden accounts:

In 1757, John’s son Thomas married Mary Thompson:

Then around 1774, Thomas emigrates to Canada (and that’s another blog post!)

After we walked around the church and Peter pointed out the section that would have been standing when John and Thomas lived there, we walked around the town, where Peter showed us the spot where Thomas is thought to have lived.

Then we treated him to lunch at the Royal George Pub. We had a great time, chatting as if we were old friends. Peter has since sent additional documents and suggestions.

Three generations of Keillors back in the ancestral hometown.

What a blessing the internet is as we seek to walk in our ancestors’ footsteps!