Career
There is difficulty in determining if the Member of Parliament and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person. The earliest record of Skerne"s career come from 1389 when he was rewarded by the crown with the keepership of Saint 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 October 1406.
He was appointed Commissioner of sewers in Surrey in December 1417. Skerne was a Justice of the Peace 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 Member of Parliament 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 Member of Parliament 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 Justice of the Peace. Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437.
The brass bears the Latin inscription:.