Skinner, George Ure (1804–1867)
Skinner, George Ure (1804–1867)
George Ure Skinner (b. 18 March 1804; d. 9 January 1867), British merchant in Guatemala. The son of a Scottish Episcopal minister and great-grandson of an ecclesiastical historian of Scotland, Skinner worked in London and in Leeds before going to Guatemala in 1831. The company he formed with Charles Klée, a German merchant, linked Guatemalan commerce closely with Great Britain, via Belize, and became a major creditor of the Guatemalan government. In addition to building a large estate based on indigo and cochineal exports from Guatemala, Skinner became a noted naturalist; he was interested in insects, birds, and orchids, and shipped many of the latter to England. He died in Panama of yellow fever as he was returning from England.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"The Late Mr. G. Ure Skinner," Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 8 (1867).
Merle A. Reinikka, A History of the Orchid (1972), pp. 169-173.
Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871 (1993).
Additional Bibliography
Pompejano, Daniele. La crisis del antiguo régimen en Guatemala (1839–1871). Guatemala, Centroamérica: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1997.
Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.