[2] Skelton and his second wife, Eliza, moved to London in the 1830s where he joined the West End Ladies' Shoemaker Society.
He began to move in radical artisan circles, and joined the London Working Men's Association (LWMA) in 1837.
In his activities as a Chartist he continued to support the six aims of the Charter, but he spoke out against the use of violence to secure change in the franchise.
In 1848, Skelton moved to Manchester when he was appointed as assistant to Dr Albert Coffin who was an American pioneer of herbal practice and self-help particularly amongst working-class people.
The Family Medical Adviser was a guide to the use of medicinal herbs in the acute diseases which were common in nineteenth century Britain.
Skelton was influenced by the Thomsonian system of herbal medicine which advocated heating herbs to rid the body of fever.
[9][10] Skelton moved back to London and by 1861 was living at 105 Great Russell Street, on the southern edge of Bloomsbury.
He undertook the five year apprenticeship necessary to qualify as a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital and, in 1864, he was listed on the Medical Register as John Skelton senior LSA 1863.
[citation needed] In the 1860s he was involved in moves to improve the status of herbal practitioners through organisations such as the British Medical Reform Society.
[citation needed] Skelton was a firm believer in self-help in medicine[13] and gave frequent courses of lectures on "medical botany" in London and northern England.
[citation needed] An Examination of the Pathology of Cholera, Revelations of Past and Present Modes of Treatment, Thermobotanic Method of Cure.
The Present and Future of Medicine: being the substance of an address, as delivered at the Whittington Club, Arundel Street, Strand.