John Gernoun, or Gernon (died ) was an Irish landowner, soldier and
judge who held office as
Serjeant-at-law (Ireland)
This is a list of lawyers who held the rank of serjeant-at-law at the Irish Bar.
Origins of the office of serjeant
The first recorded serjeant was Roger Owen, who was appointed between 1261 and 1266, although the title itself was not commonly ...
and
Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. He gave good service to the Crown during the Scottish Invasion of 1315-18, but as a judge, he was accused of injustice.
Gernoun family
He claimed descent from the de Gernon family who are described as "
barons
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
" in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
. His father Roger Gernoun was a military commander who distinguished himself during the
Bruce campaign in Ireland of 1315–1318.
[Ball, F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p.76] John also fought in the campaign and was wounded in the hand at the
Battle of Faughart
The Battle of Faughart (or Battle of Dundalk) was fought on 14 October 1318 between a Hiberno-Norman force led by John de Bermingham (later created 1st Earl of Louth) and Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, and a Scottish and Irish army command ...
in October 1318, where
Edward Bruce
Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick ( Norman French: ; mga, Edubard a Briuis; Modern Scottish Gaelic: gd, Eideard or ; – 14 October 1318), was a younger brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. He supported his brother in the 1306–1314 st ...
was killed.
The National Archives
National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives.
Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...
SC 8/82/4099 ''Petition of John Gernon of Ireland 1320''
John was probably born in
Louth Louth may refer to:
Australia
*Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia
* Louth, New South Wales, a town
* Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia
**Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality
Canada
* Louth, Ontario
Ireland
* Cou ...
. The Gernoun family had strong links to that county and gave their name to Gernonstown, an area with which John retained strong links.
[ Several members of the Gernoun family held the office of ]High Sheriff of Louth
The High Sheriff of Louth was the Crown's representative for County Louth, a territory known as his bailiwick. Selected from three nominated people, he held his office for the duration of a year. He had judicial, ceremonial and administrative func ...
between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Richard Gernon, High Sheriff of County Louth, was murdered in 1311, a casualty of a long-running feud between the Gernouns and the prominent Brisbon family of Dundalk
Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...
. It is not clear if the judge was related to the wealthy English landowner John Gernoun, who died in 1384.
Early career
Our first record of John is his petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
of 1320 to King Edward II of England to have the fishery of Gernonstown, from the river to the sea, granted to him for life.[ He pleads his good service to the Crown and in particular his actions during the Bruce Invasion at the Battle of Faughart, in which he was wounded. The petition was referred to the King personally, and was granted.][
He was in England in the 1320s, presumably studying law (Ireland then had no law school); but he was back in Ireland by 1327 when he became King's Serjeant (or "King's Pleader"). He was described as Second Serjeant, with a salary of 5 marks a year.]The National Archives
National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives.
Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...
''"Officers in Ireland anno primo K. Edward III with their yearly fees"'' He served two terms as Serjeant, from 1327 to 1330 and from 1334 to 1337. In the intervals he acted as attorney for the great heiress Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster, who had inherited her father's estates at an early age.[ Her mother Maud of Lancaster, a cousin of King Edward III, had considerable influence at Court, and Gernoun benefitted from her patronage. He was a substantial landowner in County Louth and, as was the custom with judges in this era, he was excused from performing the normal ]feudal duties
Feudal duties were the set of reciprocal financial, military and legal obligations among the warrior nobility in a feudal system. Translated into English by Philip Grierson as ''Feudalism'', 1st ed., London, 1952. These duties developed in both ...
of a landowner.
Judge
He was appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1338 and became its Chief Justice in 1341. He stepped down as Chief Justice in 1344 but was reappointed second justice of the Common Pleas in 1348.[Hart p.170] As Chief Justice there were complaints that he would adjourn cases without reaching a final judgment. In 1345 one John de la Pulle, accused of assault by Margery Poe, complained that due to Gernoun's conduct (described as the "intervention of error") he could not get justice.[''Close Roll 19 Edward III'' ] Gernoun's successor Thomas de Dent
Thomas de Dent, Thomas Dyvelyn, Thomas Denton, or Thomas of Dublin (died after 1361) was an English-born cleric and judge who held high office in Ireland during the reign of King Edward III, and was praised as a diligent and hard-working Crown off ...
was ordered to make a full inquiry, and report to the Justiciar of Ireland
The chief governor was the senior official in the Dublin Castle administration, which maintained English and British rule in Ireland from the 1170s to 1922. The chief governor was the viceroy of the English monarch (and later the British monarch ...
. Gernoun probably died in 1357.
Marriage
He married Matilda, widow of William de Nottingham (son of the long-serving Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Th ...
, Robert de Nottingham and his wife Loretta de Bree). After Gernoun's death, she remarried his colleague John Keppock
John Keppock (died 1404) was an Irish judge of the late fourteenth century, who held the offices of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He became a political figure of some importance.
He was the son of Simon Ke ...
.[ None of her marriages seem to have produced children.
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gernoun, John
People from County Louth
Chief Justices of the Irish Common Pleas
Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)