Richard Vernon (speaker)

Sir Richard Vernon (c. 1389 – 1451) was an English landowner, MP and speaker of the House of Commons.

He was born into a long-established well-to-do family based at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, the eldest son of Richard de Vernon (died 1400) and Joan verch Rhys (died 1439), daughter of Sir Rhys ap Gruffyd of Llansadwrn and Abermarlais, Carmarthenshire, and Wychnor, Staffordshire. His father died when he was ten years old, so he did not come into his estates until eleven years later. By this time he had already married Benedicta de Ludlow of Tong, Shropshire.

Vernon's property was widespread and varied. From his parents he inherited:

In addition to this patrimony, the death of his paternal grandmother, Juliana de Pembrugge (Pembrook), brought him lands formerly belonging to her brother, Fulke de Pembrugge, who was also his wife's stepfather:

Sir Fulke's second wife, Isabel of Lingen, who was also Vernon's mother-in-law, had founded a chantry and college of a warden and four chaplains at Tong to pray for the souls of her three husbands. She bequeathed advowson of the church to Vernon, and also settled her manor of Haselbech, Northamptonshire, on him. In 1415, prior to launching his invasion of France, Henry V induced parliament to dissolve all alien priories: monastic houses subsidiary to abbeys in France. This included Lapley Priory, a small Benedictine house on the western edge of Staffordshire. Its lands were given to Tong college, greatly improving the income of the chaplains and putting the chantry on a much more secure footing. It is possible that this was brought about by a member of the House of Beaufort, the king's cousins, to whom Sir Fulke had been very close. Tong church was to become a shrine for the Vernon family, accommodating generations of elaborate tombs.

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