SKYTTE, JOHAN [SSNE 6280]

Surname
SKYTTE, SKYTE, SKEET, SKITTE, SKITE, SCHITT, SCHEYTE, THE YOUNGER, DUDERHOF
First name
JOHAN, JOHN
Title/rank
BARON, SIR, COLONEL
Nationality
SWEDISH AND SCOT

Text source

Johan Skytte was the son of Johan Skytte [SSNE 4754] and his Scottish wife Mary Neave [SSNE 6272]. He was born on 5 December 1612. His brothers were Bengt [SSNE 4842] and Jakob [SSNE 4920]. According to Elgenstierna he attended Uppsala university in 1624 from October and Leiden University from October 1625. He was then the rector of Dorpat university. However this same information has also been published in relation to his brother Jacob [SSNE 4920] so it appears that these two names have been conflated at some point. Johan wrote a Latin account of the battle of Nurnburg to his brother Bengt in London in 1632. Johan himself made an official visit to the Stuart Court in 1634-5 which included a recruitment trip to Scotland. One source notes that he was a gentleman of the chamber to Charles I in 1632 and knighted that year. His father was also on this trip. Indeed in April 1635 the Swedish council specifically wrote to Johan Skytte sr ordering him to ensure that Johan jr. successfully recruited a full regiment. Colonel Alexander Forbes [SSNE 1616] informed him that his brother awaited John's arrival in Scotland, having received Major John Beaton's [SSNE 431] recruitment patent for Skytte's regiment, and that Forbes' brother desired to be a captain for him. Skytte's regiment also contained Major Thomas Moffat [SSNE 3018] and captains Arthur Forbes [SSNE 2226], James Dunbar [SSNE 2432], Lachlan Ross [SSNE 3379] and Ludvig Desouche. In 1635 he obtained a letter from king Charles I which naturalised him as a Scotsman, in order to facilitate his inheritance of lands originally owned by James Neave [SSNE 4218], his maternal grandfather. In April 1635 the Privy Seal authorised a payment to Sir Roger Palmer, Cofferer of the Household, for £162, 11s. 9d. "on account of the expenses of the diet of Mons. Skeet, Extraorinary Ambassador from Sweden." The Swedish archives have an English-language document called "The Words of Command Practised in the regiment of S. John Skytte, Baron of Duderof, knight and gentleman of his Maiestie of Great Britain his privie chamber". It is unfortunately undated, but probably originated around this period. He was colonel of a recruited regiment from 1635-6, but died in Pomerania during the siege of Stargaard where he was the commandant in 1636. His funeral oration was held at Dorpat on 9th June 1637. He was buried in Uppsala.

Sources:

Swedish Riksarkiv, Depositio Skytteana, A:5, E5412: "Charles Rex, Our Sovereigne Lord Ordanis a letter of naturalizaton to be made and exped under the great Seale of the Kingdome of Scotland makinge mention that whereas His Ma:ties trustie and welbeloved Sr John Skite [***] lawfull sonne to the Lord Duderhoff late Ambassador to his Ma:tie from the Queene of Sweden hath ben an humble suitor to his highnes for being made a naturalized person of the said Kingdome of Scotland in respect that his desent in blood on the Mother side is from there, and that he intends an action in lawe for recovery of certaine Lands which (as is affirmed) did belonge unto his goodsir [*** James Neave. Therefore and for divs other good considerations movinge his Ma:tie his highness hath declared and for him and his successors does declare the said Sr John Skyte knt to be naturalized as a native subiect borne within the said kingdome in all timecominge and to be capable of whatsoever dignities offices and benefices within the same and to have full libertie and power not only to insist be law for recoverie of what is justlye due unto him but to purchace and acquire within the said kingdome whatsoever lands heretages annulments and other goods and [***] movable and imouvable and to the same to possesse and enioye be whatsoever title as well be way of succession and be donation acquisition or otherwise whatsoever and that the [***] of the said [***] John Skyte sall have right and power to succeed to whatsoever lande and heretages to be acquired to them within the said kingdome and full hand libertie to dispose be speir Testaments and latter will upon whatsoever good and [***] which shall happen to appertaine onto them within the said kingdome, and to nominate Executors in speir Testaments and to loane and dispone thereupon be legacie to whatsoever person or persons and also to nominate tutors one or more their children male or female procreated or to be procreated of their bodyes and to [***] possesse and enioye all other priviledges, immunities faculties and liberties whatsoever which are competent or may be competent to any native borne subiect within the said kingdome and his Ma:tie will and commandes that their [***] shalbe a sufficient warrant to the writer to the great Seale and keep thereof for wreitinge hereof to the said Seale and appendinge the great Seale theireunto without passing any otheir Seale or [***] for with these [***] shallbe sufficient warrant, Given at his Ma:ties [***] of the nynthe day of May 1635, Vera Copia James Philp".

Sources: Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1635/26,27,30,31; 1636/19-23,DEAD 24; 1637/15; His Regimental Muster Roll for 1636 is here: 

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0053320_00199#?c=&m=&s=&cv=198&xywh=2163%2C387%2C3357%2C1881

 

See also: The Swedish Intelligencer: The Third Part (London, 1633), p.46; Swedish Riksarkiv, Depositio Skytteana, A:5, E 5412; C. Gartz, "Äreminne, öfver Riks-Rådet Johan Skytte, Friherre til Duderhoff, Herre til Grönsjö och Elfvesjö; Hvilket vunnit accessit den 20 Marii 1786", Svenska Vitterhets-Academiens Handlingar, del 5, (Stockholm, 1788), pp.116-7; Uppsala Library Pamskioldiska samlingen 356 and same archive, Westimska Samlingen; Swedish Riksarkiv, 1841, Svenske Sändebuds till Utländske Hof och Deras Sändebud till Sverige, pp.77-78; A.J. Loomie (ed.), Ceremonies of Charles I, The Notebooks of John Finet 1628-1641 (New York, 1987), p.317; G. Elgenstierna, Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, VII, p.319; Krigsarkivet Bestandsoversikt, del 2, Meddelanden fran krigsarkivet XI:2 (Stockholm, 1987), p.626; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1635, p.48; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.58-61, 357-358.

 

Service record

SWEDEN, UPPSALA
Arrived 1624-10-01
Departed 1625-09-30
Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN, LEIDEN
Arrived 1625-10-01
Departed 1626-09-30
Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
SWEDEN,
Arrived 1632-01-01, as OFFICER
Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, LONDON
Arrived 1635-04-01
Departed 1635-07-31
Capacity AMBASSADOR, purpose DIPLOMACY
SWEDEN, STARGARD, POMERANIA (Pommern)
Arrived 1635-08-01, as COLONEL AND COMMANDANT
Departed 1636-12-31, as COLONEL AND COMMANDANT
Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, DORPAT
Capacity RECTOR, purpose ACADEMIC