John Gernoun

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John Gernoun, also known as Gernon (died c. 1357), was an Irish landowner, soldier and judge. He served the Crown during the Scottish Invasion of 1315–1318 and later became a judge. He claimed descent from the de Gernon family and was probably born in County Louth, where he owned land in Dundalk. The Gernoun family had strong links to Louth and gave their name to Gernonstown; his descendants lived there for generations.

John’s father, Roger Gernoun, was a military commander in the Bruce campaign in Ireland, and John himself fought in that conflict. He was wounded in the hand at the Battle of Faughart in October 1318, where Edward Bruce was killed.

The first record of him is a 1320 petition to King Edward II asking for the fishery of Gernonstown, from the river to the sea, for life, as a reward for his service, including at Faughart. The petition was granted. He spent time in England in the 1320s, likely studying law, and by 1327 he returned to Ireland to become King’s Serjeant (second Serjeant) with a salary of five marks a year. He served two terms as Serjeant, 1327–1330 and 1334–1337, and during the breaks acted as attorney for Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster, whose family had influence at court.

Gernoun was a major landowner in County Louth and, as was common for judges then, was exempt from normal feudal duties. He was appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1338 and became Chief Justice in 1341. He stepped down as Chief Justice in 1344 but was reappointed as second justice in 1348. As Chief Justice, there were complaints that he would adjourn cases without a final judgment; in 1345 a plaintiff accused him of misconduct.

In 1350 he gave up some lands in Dundalk to John de Kerseley for 100 shillings. He probably died in 1357. He married, probably before 1330, Matilda, widow of William de Nottingham. After John’s death, she remarried his colleague John Keppock. They had a son, also named John. In 1350, John and Matilda granted their messuages and lands at Ardee and Mullanstown, County Louth, to their son. A later John Gernoun of Gernonstown who received a royal pardon in 1422 was probably a descendant of this judge.