Robert Skerne

Robert Skerne (died 1437) was MP for Surrey in 1420 and again in 1422.

Career

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.

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.

The brass bears the Latin inscription: 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.