Robert Skerne | |
|---|---|
 Joan and Robert Skerne | |
| Member of Parliament for Surrey | |
| In office 1420 –May 1421 | |
| In office 1422–1423 | |
| Personal details | |
| Died | 9 April 1437 Kingston upon Thames |
| Resting place | All Saints Church,Kingston upon Thames 51°24′37″N0°18′22″W / 51.4104°N 0.3061°W |
| Spouse | Joan |
| Residence(s) | Canbury, Kingston upon Thames |
| Profession | lawyer |
Robert Skerne (died 1437) was MP for Surrey in 1420 and again in 1422. [1]
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. [1]
The earliest record of Skerne's career come from 1389 when he was rewarded by the crown with the keepership of St. Ellen’s hospital (Bracefordspittle) in Yorkshire and the farm of the manor of Willoughton in Lincolnshire which he was still paying rent for in November 1420. Skerne was appointed commissioner to audit the accounts of persons collecting pavage in London in October 1406. He was appointed Commissioner of Sewers in Surrey in December 1417. Skerne was a J.P. in Surrey from 28 October 1417, a post he held for fourteen years. He was made commissioner to raise a royal loan in November 1419 and was tax collector for Surrey in January 1420. That same year he became MP for Surrey in the 9th parliament of Henry V. His judicial career continued, being appointed commissioner of oyer and terminer in July 1421. Skerne was MP for Surrey again in 1422 in the first Parliament of Henry VI. In April 1431 he was commissioner to assess a royal loan and, in December that year, he retired as JP. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1] Bray says, in his History of the County of Surrey that Robert lived at Downhall in Canbury, Kingston upon Thames, styled a 'capital messuage' or 'manor', held of Merton Priory situated to the south of the present day railway bridge. Others have been unable to corroborate that this Robert Skerne lived there. [2]
After Joan’s death, some time before January 1431, Skerne gifted one of the messuages to Osney Abbey in return for admission into the fraternity, and arrangements for prayers to be said in memory of his late wife. He retired from the bench at this time but was signatory to further legal documents dating up to 1435. [1]
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. [3]
The brass bears the Latin inscription:
Roberti cista Skerni corpus tenet ista, | The tomb constructed here of marble stone contains |
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. [2]
Thomas Chaucer was an English courtier and politician. The son of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his wife Philippa Roet, Thomas was linked socially and by family to senior members of the English nobility, though he was himself a commoner. Elected fifteen times to the Parliament of England, he was Speaker of the House of Commons for five parliaments in the early 15th century.
Sir Maurice Russell, JP of Kingston Russell, Dorset and Dyrham, Glos. was an English gentleman and knight. He was a prominent member of the Gloucestershire gentry. He was the third but eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Ralph Russell (1319–1375) and his wife Alice. He was knighted between June and December 1385 and served twice as Knight of the Shire for Gloucestershire in 1402 and 1404. He held the post of Sheriff of Gloucestershire four times, and was Coroner and Justice of the Peace, Tax Collector and Commissioner of Enquiry. His land holdings were extensive in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was descended from an ancient line which can be traced back to 1210, which ended on the death of his son Thomas, from his second marriage, as a young man without male issue. Most of his estates, despite having been entailed, passed at his death into the families of his two daughters from his first marriage.
Sir Hugh I Courtenay, of Haccombe in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon for 1418/19 and was thrice elected knight of the shire for Devon in 1395, 1397 and 1421. He was a grandson of Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd/10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377), was the younger brother of Edward de Courtenay, 3rd/11th Earl of Devon (1357–1419), "The Blind Earl", and was the grandfather of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509), KG, created Earl of Devon in 1485 by King Henry VII. He was the link between the senior line of the Courtenay Earls of Devon made extinct following the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 and the post-Wars of the Roses creation of a new Earldom for his grandson made in 1485 by King Henry VII.
All Saints Church is the historic parish church of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London, and is set between the ancient Market Place and the main shopping centre. It forms part of the Diocese of Southwark and together with the church of St John, and St John the Divine, it forms a team of Anglican churches serving residents, businesses, schools and Kingston University. The church is the only Grade I listed building in Kingston.
Sir William Coggeshall (1358–1426), of Codham Hall and Coggeshall, Essex, was an English politician.
John Wilcotes, of Great Tew, Oxfordshire, was an English politician.
William Haute (1390–1462) of Bishopsbourne, Kent, was an English politician.
John Fitling, of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, was an English politician and merchant.
Canbury is a district of the northern part of Kingston upon Thames that takes its name from the historic manor that covered the area.
Sir Richard Arches, of Eythrope, in the parish of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, was MP for Buckinghamshire in 1402. He was knighted before 1401.
Richard Wydeville was an English landowner, soldier, diplomat, administrator and politician. His son married an aunt of King Henry VI and they were the parents of the wife of the next king, Edward IV.
Sir Robert Cary of Cockington, Devon, was twelve times Member of Parliament for Devon, in 1407, 1410, 1411, May 1413, April 1414, Mar. 1416, 1417, 1419, May 1421, 1422, 1425 and 1426. Much of his later life was devoted to regaining the many estates and other landholdings forfeited to the crown following his father's attainder in 1388. He was an esquire in the households of King Richard II (1377–1399) and of the latter's half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter.
Henry Somer was a mediaeval English courtier and Member of Parliament who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Somer's tenure as Chancellor occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the beginning of the Great Slump in England.
Sir Humphrey Stafford"With the Silver Hand", of Hooke in Dorset and of Southwick in the parish of North Bradley in Wiltshire was a member of the English gentry in the south west of England, where he was a Member of Parliament multiple times and an important royal official.
John Greville was a Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire in seven parliaments.
John Waterton was an English landowner, administrator, courtier, diplomat, and politician who sat in the Parliament of England.
Sir Thomas Brooke of Holditch in the parish of Thorncombe in Devon and of la Brooke in the parish of Ilchester in Somerset, was "by far the largest landowner in Somerset" and served 13 times as a Member of Parliament for Somerset. He was the first prominent member of his family, largely due to the great wealth he acquired from his marriage to a wealthy widow. The monumental brass of Sir Thomas Brooke and his wife survives in Thorncombe Church.
Sir Thomas Umfraville (c1362-1391) was an English landowner, soldier, administrator, diplomat, and politician who sat in the Parliament of England as member for Northumberland in 1388 and 1390 and also served as High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1388.