Robert Skerne was MP for Surrey in 1420 and again in 1422.
There is difficulty in determining if the MP and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. A Robert Skerne stood surety in Chancery for his friends during the two reigns. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person.
Skerne is noted for having married Joan, youngest daughter of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, which implies that Skerne had connections at court. Joan profited little from her mother's estate following Perrers' death in 1400/1401 but acquired the manor of Compton Murdak in Warwickshire. Joan fought a series of sometimes protracted legal battles to support her claim to more of the estate. Skerne took seisin of Joan's mother's Berkshire manor of East Hanney, and in 1406 Joan settled on a compromise with her sister, Jane, over property in Upminster, Essex, paying Joan an annuity of 4 marks for life. Joan and Skerne also eventually managed to reassert her title to some of the holdings purchased by Alice Perrers in Oxford.
Skerne, however, was not dependent on his wife's estate. He held Downhall in Guildford from Merton College, lands and rents in Kingston-upon-Thames and Thames Ditton, the manor of Freemantles, Windlesham and land in Hampshire.
Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437. He was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, marked by a monumental brass.
The brass in Latin transcribes to:
The tomb constructed here of marble stone contains
All that of Robert Skerne and of his wife remains,
He being valiant, faithful, cautious, skilled in law,
Noble, ingenious, did treachery abhor:
Constant in speech, in life, in feeling and in thought,
That justice freely and to all was due, he taught.
The honours of the royal law alone he prized.
To cheat or be deceived a thing he quite despised.
May he in heaven rejoice, who lived on earth sincere,
Who died upon the fourth of April in the year
Of Christ one thousand twenty score and thirty seven.
Have mercy on his soul, Jesus, Thou King of Heaven.
Following his uncle's death, his nephew, William, founded a chantry in his honour. William's son, also named Robert, inherited Downhall, Kingston, it subsequently passing to his son, Swithin, in 1485-6.
There is difficulty in determining if the MP and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. A Robert Skerne stood surety in Chancery for his friends during the two reigns. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person.
Skerne is noted for having married Joan, youngest daughter of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, which implies that Skerne had connections at court. Joan profited little from her mother's estate following Perrers' death in 1400/1401 but acquired the manor of Compton Murdak in Warwickshire. Joan fought a series of sometimes protracted legal battles to support her claim to more of the estate. Skerne took seisin of Joan's mother's Berkshire manor of East Hanney, and in 1406 Joan settled on a compromise with her sister, Jane, over property in Upminster, Essex, paying Joan an annuity of 4 marks for life. Joan and Skerne also eventually managed to reassert her title to some of the holdings purchased by Alice Perrers in Oxford.
Skerne, however, was not dependent on his wife's estate. He held Downhall in Guildford from Merton College, lands and rents in Kingston-upon-Thames and Thames Ditton, the manor of Freemantles, Windlesham and land in Hampshire.
Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437. He was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, marked by a monumental brass.
The brass in Latin transcribes to:
The tomb constructed here of marble stone contains
All that of Robert Skerne and of his wife remains,
He being valiant, faithful, cautious, skilled in law,
Noble, ingenious, did treachery abhor:
Constant in speech, in life, in feeling and in thought,
That justice freely and to all was due, he taught.
The honours of the royal law alone he prized.
To cheat or be deceived a thing he quite despised.
May he in heaven rejoice, who lived on earth sincere,
Who died upon the fourth of April in the year
Of Christ one thousand twenty score and thirty seven.
Have mercy on his soul, Jesus, Thou King of Heaven.
Following his uncle's death, his nephew, William, founded a chantry in his honour. William's son, also named Robert, inherited Downhall, Kingston, it subsequently passing to his son, Swithin, in 1485-6.
Robert Skerne was MP for Surrey in 1420 and again in 1422.
There is difficulty in determining if the MP and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. A Robert Skerne stood surety in Chancery for his friends during the two reigns. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person.
Skerne is noted for having married Joan, youngest daughter of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, which implies that Skerne had connections at court. Joan profited little from her mother's estate following Perrers' death in 1400/1401 but acquired the manor of Compton Murdak in Warwickshire. Joan fought a series of sometimes protracted legal battles to support her claim to more of the estate. Skerne took seisin of Joan's mother's Berkshire manor of East Hanney, and in 1406 Joan settled on a compromise with her sister, Jane, over property in Upminster, Essex, paying Joan an annuity of 4 marks for life. Joan and Skerne also eventually managed to reassert her title to some of the holdings purchased by Alice Perrers in Oxford.
Skerne, however, was not dependent on his wife's estate. He held Downhall in Guildford from Merton College, lands and rents in Kingston-upon-Thames and Thames Ditton, the manor of Freemantles, Windlesham and land in Hampshire.
Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437. He was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, marked by a monumental brass.
The brass in Latin transcribes to:
The tomb constructed here of marble stone contains
All that of Robert Skerne and of his wife remains,
He being valiant, faithful, cautious, skilled in law,
Noble, ingenious, did treachery abhor:
Constant in speech, in life, in feeling and in thought,
That justice freely and to all was due, he taught.
The honours of the royal law alone he prized.
To cheat or be deceived a thing he quite despised.
May he in heaven rejoice, who lived on earth sincere,
Who died upon the fourth of April in the year
Of Christ one thousand twenty score and thirty seven.
Have mercy on his soul, Jesus, Thou King of Heaven.
Following his uncle's death, his nephew, William, founded a chantry in his honour. William's son, also named Robert, inherited Downhall, Kingston, it subsequently passing to his son, Swithin, in 1485-6.
There is difficulty in determining if the MP and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. A Robert Skerne stood surety in Chancery for his friends during the two reigns. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person.
Skerne is noted for having married Joan, youngest daughter of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, which implies that Skerne had connections at court. Joan profited little from her mother's estate following Perrers' death in 1400/1401 but acquired the manor of Compton Murdak in Warwickshire. Joan fought a series of sometimes protracted legal battles to support her claim to more of the estate. Skerne took seisin of Joan's mother's Berkshire manor of East Hanney, and in 1406 Joan settled on a compromise with her sister, Jane, over property in Upminster, Essex, paying Joan an annuity of 4 marks for life. Joan and Skerne also eventually managed to reassert her title to some of the holdings purchased by Alice Perrers in Oxford.
Skerne, however, was not dependent on his wife's estate. He held Downhall in Guildford from Merton College, lands and rents in Kingston-upon-Thames and Thames Ditton, the manor of Freemantles, Windlesham and land in Hampshire.
Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437. He was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, marked by a monumental brass.
The brass in Latin transcribes to:
The tomb constructed here of marble stone contains
All that of Robert Skerne and of his wife remains,
He being valiant, faithful, cautious, skilled in law,
Noble, ingenious, did treachery abhor:
Constant in speech, in life, in feeling and in thought,
That justice freely and to all was due, he taught.
The honours of the royal law alone he prized.
To cheat or be deceived a thing he quite despised.
May he in heaven rejoice, who lived on earth sincere,
Who died upon the fourth of April in the year
Of Christ one thousand twenty score and thirty seven.
Have mercy on his soul, Jesus, Thou King of Heaven.
Following his uncle's death, his nephew, William, founded a chantry in his honour. William's son, also named Robert, inherited Downhall, Kingston, it subsequently passing to his son, Swithin, in 1485-6.
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