Background
He was the son of John Skinner of London.
He was the son of John Skinner of London.
He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 6 December 1639. But when the First English Civil War broke out, he left England. In 1646 Skinner was again at Oxford, and in consideration of his foreign service he was allowed to accumulate both his arts degrees in that same year, graduating Bachelor of Arts on 21 October and Master of Arts on 10 November.
On 22 April 1649 he entered as a medical student at Leiden University, on 6 May 1653 at the University of Heidelberg, and on 4 November 1653 was again at Leyden.
At the beginning of 1654 he graduated Doctor of Medicine at Heidelberg, and on 26 May of that year was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford. Skinner was made honorary fellow of the London College of Physicians in December 1664.
He practised in Lincoln where he died of malignant fever on 5 September 1667.