[2] On the accession of Elizabeth I, he was reappointed Attorney General and also acted briefly as Lord Chief Justice, pending a permanent appointment.
[5] Despite his opposition to cess, Skurlock was surprisingly well-regarded by the authorities: he was on the commission to execute martial law in Meath in 1564, and was party to the renewal of the lease of the King's Inn in 1567.
Skurlock was chosen, with Henry Burnell and Richard Netterville, to travel to London to petition the Queen for its abolition, on account of the ruinous cost it imposed on the gentry of the Pale.
[7] His last years seem to have been peaceful enough, apart from a dispute with the Lord Justice of Ireland, Sir Henry Wallop in 1584 over the right of Skurlock's sons to take possession of the manors of Skurlockstown and Ifernock.
He married a daughter of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir John Plunket, and they had at least two sons: Oliver, who held the manor of Skurlockstown, and Walter, who was Attorney General for Connaught from 1601 to 1613.
[8] In character, he was described as "learned, modest and discreet" [4] although his enemy Lord Deputy Sidney, while admitting his "credit and influence", called him a man who had grown "old and crafty", and was given to "indecent and undutiful speech".