The Abbot of Dryburgh (later, Commendator of Dryburgh) was the head of the Premonstratensian community of canons regular of Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders. The monastery was founded in 1150 by canons regular from Alnwick Abbey with the patronage of Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale. In the 16th century the monastery increasingly came under secular control, and was eventually incorporated into the lordship of Cardross. The following is a list of abbots and commendators:
ABBOT | TENURE | REIGN | NOTES |
---|---|---|---|
Roger (I) | 1152 – 1177 | David I, Malcolm IV, William I | First abbot of Dryburgh; resigned 1177. [1] |
Gerard (Girardus) | 1177–1184x1188 | William I | He was the prior before his elevation. [1] |
Adam of Dryburgh | 1184–1188 | William I | |
Richard | c.1188–c.1193 | William I | |
Alan | 1193–1196 | William I | |
Geoffrey (Galfrid) | 1203–1209 | William I | Promoted to the motherhouse to become abbot of Alnwick. [2] |
William (I) | 1209–1210 | William I | He was prior during Geoffrey’s abbacy. |
Thomas (I) | 1200x1234 | William I, Alexander II | |
Hugh | 1221–1229 | Alexander II | |
Henry | ?1230 | Alexander II | |
Walter (I) | 1236–1240 | Alexander II | He resigned due to continuing abbey debts. [3] |
John (I) | 1240–1245x1255 | Alexander II | |
Oliver | 1262–1273 x | Alexander III | |
Thomas (II) | ?1270 | Alexander III | Grants an undated charter, thought to be from 1270, to the chaplain of Alan, Lord of Galloway [4] |
William (II) | 1296 | Edward I of England | On 28 August 1296 he submitted along with abbots of Jedburgh, Kelso, and Melrose to King Edward I of England [5] |
Roger (II) | 1308x1309 | Robert I | |
William (III) | 1316–1324 | Robert I | King Edward II of England burned the abbey in August 1322 along with abbeys of Holyrood and Melrose. [6] |
Roger (III) | 1324x1328 | Robert I | occurs as witness to a charter, granted between 1324 and 1328, by which Sir John de Graham confirmed the whole of Eskdale to the monks of Melrose. [7] |
David (I) | 1324x1328–1342 | Robert I, David II, Edward Balliol | |
Andrew (I) | 1350–c.1367–69 | Edward Balliol, David II | Andrew witnessed, as a vassal of King Edward III of England, Edward Balliol’s resignation of all rights to the Scottish crown at Roxburgh on 20 January 1356. [8] |
John (II) | 1381–1406 | Robert II, Robert III | King Robert III gave to the abbey the wealthy properties of the nuns of Southberwick in compensation for the destruction of the abbey by Richard II in 1385. [9] |
William (IV) de Dryburgh | 1408 | James I | |
John (III) de Aberdeen | 1408–1414 | James I | |
Thomas (III) de Merton | 1434 | James I | |
James Crawford | 1444–1445 | James II | |
Walter de Var (Dewar) | 1461–1476 x 1477 | James III | Last abbot to have his provision without challenge and first documentary evidence of alienation of abbey property. [10] |
John (IV) Crawford | 1477–1482 | James III | Papal confirmation of his appointment in 1477. He tried to regain some of the properties alienated by his predecessor. [11] |
Hugh Douglas | 1477x1482 | James III | Challenged Crawford\’s abbacy in 1477 and was successful in gaining provision to the abbey but then was expelled from the convent. In 1482 Douglas counter-challenged Crawford but in that same year and before the claim could be heard, Crawford died. Douglas thereby successfully gained the abbacy but then he died before the bulls of provision could be produced. [11] |
Andrew (II) Lidderdale | 1482–1508 | James III, James IV | Lidderdale was a secular canon and received the provision in September 1482 on condition that within 3 months he would become a Premonstratensian. He resigned in October in favour of Thomas Hay. [11] |
Thomas (IV) Hay | 1482 | James III | Hay was unable to secure the abbacy and Lidderdale stayed in position. [11] |
John (V) Fenton | 1483 | James III | A group of canons elected Fenton, a Dryburgh canon, arguing that Lidderdale had failed to adopt the Premonstratensian habit. He was soon imprisoned by the followers of David Dinac. [11] |
David (II) Dinac | 1483 | James III | Managed to hold the abbacy for a few months but the provision was rejected by the pope in favour of John Fenton. Nothing is known thereafter of Fenton and it appears that Lidderdale continued in office until December 1508 when he was deprived of the abbey; he did, however, receive a pension from the abbey\’s income. The canons elected David Finlayson and nominated him to James IV. [12] |
David (III) Finlayson | 1509 | James IV | King James IV did not approve the appointment. Instead, Andrew Forman became the first commendator of the abbey. [13] |
COMMENDATOR HEADS OF THE ABBEY | |||
Andrew Forman | 1509–1516 | James IV, James V | Was bishop of Moray (1501–1516); resigned abbacy in 1516 two years after his translation to the archbishopric of St Andrews in 1514. [14] |
James Ogilvie | 1516–1518 | James V | Pluralist and diplomat. Received the temporalities of the abbey in August 1516 and died in 1518. [14] |
David Hamilton | 1519–1523 | James V | Was bishop of Argyll (1497–1523) and had tried to obtain the commend of Glenluce Abbey in a protracted appeal at Rome. Hamilton had formerly given up his claim by 1519 when he was provided to Dryburgh. [15] |
James Stewart | 1523–1539 | James V | A canon of Glasgow Cathedral and kinsman of the Earl of Lennox [16] |
Thomas Erskine | 1541–1551 | James V, Mary I | Nominated by King James V in November 1539 but provision only granted in 1541 presumably due to the dispute of provision with Robert Waucope. Waucope was a secular cleric in the archbishopric of Armagh and prosecuted his claim to the abbacy of Dryburgh until his appointment as archbishop of Armagh in 1545. King James refused to allow him to the temporalities of the abbey. [17] |
Robert Frasin | 1548 | Mary I | |
John Erskine | 1548–1556 | Mary I | Succeeded his father as Lord Erskine, and later awarded the Earldom of Mar. John resigned the commend in 1556 to David Erskine, an illegitimate son of his brother, Robert. Later served as Regent of Scotland, September 1571 – 29 October 1572. [17] |
David Erskine | 1556–1584 & 1585–1604 | Mary I, James VI | Responsible for large-scale alienation of the abbey lands, David Erskine was also Commendator of Inchmahome, as well as one of James VI’s four preceptors or tutors. Involved in the Raid of Ruthven when the young King James was kidnapped, he was forced to flee to England following the failure of the Gowrie regime, forfeiting the commend of Dryburgh to William Stewart of Caverston in 1584, and that of Inchmahome to Henry Stewart. Received back into favour by James in 1585, his forfeitures were returned to him. He oversaw the end of Dryburgh Abbey as a working monastery; records show that though there were canons at the abbey in 1581, these had all died by 1600. In 1604, he resigned the commend of Dryburgh to his relative Henry Erskine, Master of Cardross, the son of John Erskine, Earl of Mar. [18] |
William Stewart | 1584–1585 | James VI | Was commendator for a little over a year. [18] |
Henry Erskine | 1604–1628 | James VI, Charles I | Although the lands had all been transferred into the Lordship of Cardross, Erskine retained the title until his death in 1628. [19] |
David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later King of Scotland from 1124 to 1153. The youngest son of Malcolm III and Margaret of Wessex, David spent most of his childhood in Scotland, but was exiled to England temporarily in 1093. Perhaps after 1100, he became a dependent at the court of King Henry I. There he was influenced by the Anglo-French culture of the court.
Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November (Martinmas) 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland. The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place on 13 December 1152.
Fergus of Galloway was a twelfth-century Lord of Galloway. Although his familial origins are unknown, it is possible that he was of Norse-Gaelic ancestry. Fergus first appears on record in 1136, when he witnessed a charter of David I, King of Scotland. There is considerable evidence indicating that Fergus was married to an illegitimate daughter of Henry I, King of England. It is possible that Elizabeth Fitzroy was the mother of Fergus's three children.
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Andrew Forman was a Scottish diplomat and prelate who became Bishop of Moray in 1501, Archbishop of Bourges in France, in 1513, Archbishop of St Andrews in 1514 as well as being Commendator of several monasteries.
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Walter FitzAlan was a twelfth-century Scottish magnate and Steward of Scotland. He was a younger son of Alan fitz Flaald and Avelina de Hesdin. In about 1136, Walter entered into the service of David I, King of Scotland. He became the king's dapifer or steward in about 1150, and served as such for three successive Scottish kings: David, Malcolm IV, and William I. In time, the stewardship became hereditarily-held by Walter's descendants.
The Abbot of Glenluce was the head of the monastic community of Glenluce Abbey, Galloway. The monastery was founded in 1192 by monks from Dundrennan Abbey with the patronage of Lochlann (Roland), Lord of Galloway. In the 16th century the monastery increasingly came under the control of secular warlords. In 1560 the monastery was occupied by James Gordon of Lochinvar, and the monks were expelled. However, soon after, Thomas Hay, a follower of the earl of Cassillis, was installed in the monastery as commendator and the monks were allowed to return. However, monastic life seems to have disappeared by the end of the century. In 1602 parliament granted the lands of the monastery to Lawrence Gordon as a secular lordship. The abbey was finally given to the bishop of Galloway in 1619. The following is a list of abbots and abbot-commendators:
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Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I are the events which took place in Scotland during David I of Scotland's reign as King of Scots, from 1124 to 1153. When his brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I of England, to take the Kingdom of Alba for himself. David was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. Subduing the latter took David ten years, and involved the destruction of Óengus, mormaer of Moray. David's victory allowed him to expand his control over more distant regions theoretically part of the Kingdom. In this he was largely successful, although he failed to bring the Earldom of Orkney into his kingdom.
The Davidian Revolution is a name given by many scholars to the changes which took place in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reign of David I (1124–1153). These included his foundation of burghs, implementation of the ideals of Gregorian Reform, foundation of monasteries, Normanization of the Scottish government, and the introduction of feudalism through immigrant Norman and Anglo-Norman knights.
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