Baron Skryne

Baron Skryne was the title of the holder of an Irish feudal barony : it derived from the parish of Skryne, or Skreen, in County Meath. It was not recognised as a barony in the Peerage of Ireland, but was habitually used firstly by the de Feypo family and then by their descendants, the Marwards. Baron Skryne was not entitled as of right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, although it seems that in practice the holder of the title was often summoned to the Irish Parliament. The title fell into disuse in the seventeenth century, when the family estates were forfeited to the English Crown.

Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath in 1170 granted the lands of Skryne and Santry to his lieutenant Adam de Feypo, who was the first of his family to use the title Baron of Skryne. Despite Adam's loyalty to Hugh de Lacy, his son Richard, second Baron Skryne, witnessed a charter in 1210 forfeiting the de Lacy inheritance. A later Richard, perhaps the first Richard's grandson, died in the reign of Edward I leaving an underage son, Simon. In 1302 Simon, by then an adult, brought a successful lawsuit against his former guardian Theobald de Verdon for wasting his inheritance. The last of the de Feypo barons of Skryne, Francis, founded an Augustinian friary and a chantry about 1340.

Francis's daughter and heiress Katherine de Feypo married Thomas Marward in about 1375. Lord Francis's eldest son and heir John de Feipo along with his son, also called John, had died before Francis and Katherine became heiress to Skryne. Robert de Feipo, Katherine's surviving brother must have been somewhat out of sorts as he should have been the rightful heir. There had been de Feypo's holding the title of Baron for five generations. Robert lived in Santry Castle near Dunboyne. and his descendants also used the title Baron Skryne.

When the Marwards first adopted the title is uncertain, but it seems to have been before the 1460s, when Anne Marward, described as the daughter of Baron Skryne, married as his first wife Sir Alexander Plunket (died 1503), a future Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Walter Marward, Baron Skryne (died 1487), who was probably Anne's brother, was apparently a man of some consequence, who married Margaret St Lawrence, daughter of the powerful Anglo-Irish peer and statesman Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth.

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