The

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

and then Commendator of Melrose was the head of the monastic community of

Melrose Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of th ...

, in Melrose in the

Borders region The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian an ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The abbots of the earlier Northumbrian foundation from Lindisfarne are not included here. The second abbey was founded in 1136 on the patronage of

David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland ...

(''Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim''),

King of Scots The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth I MacAlpin (), who founded the state in 843. Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland is thought to have grown ...

, by Cistercian monks from

Rievaulx Abbey Rievaulx Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, near Helmsley, in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the great abbeys in England until it was seized in 1538 under Henry VIII during the Dissolutio ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. Control of the abbey was secularized in the 16th century and after the accession of James Stewart, the abbey was held by commendators. The last commendator, James Douglas of Lochleven, resigned the abbacy to

William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton (c. 1540 – 1606) was the son of Robert Douglas of Lochleven and Margaret Erskine, a former mistress of James V of Scotland. Career Connections Sir William's half-brother from his mother's liaison with the k ...

(his nephew) in December 1606, and the abbey itself to the king in 1608. The abbey (or most of its lands) was then erected into a secular lordship for viscount Haddington, John Ramsay, who in 1609 was created "Lord Melrose". Lochleven however resumed the title of commendator in 1613 until his death in 1620.

List of Abbots

* Richard, 1136-1148 * St. Waltheof, 1148-1159 * William, 1159-1170 * Jocelin, 1170-1174 * Laurence, 1175-1178 * Ernald, 1179-89 * Reiner, 1189-94 * Radulf (I), 1194-1202 * William, 1202-06 * Patrick, 1206-07 * Adam, 1207-13 * Hugh de Clipstone, 1214-15 * William de Courcy, 1215-6 * Radulf II, 1216-1219 * Adam de Harkarres, 1219-46 * Matthew, 1246-61 * Adam of Maxton, 1261-67 * John de Edrom (or Ederham), 1267-68 x 69 *

Robert de Keldeleth Robert de Keldeleth (or Robert Kenleith) (died 1273) was a 13th-century Benedictine and then Cistercian abbot. He started his senior career as Abbot of Dunfermline (1240–52), becoming Chancellor of Scotland later in the 1240s. He took a promine ...

, 1269-73 * Patrick de Selkirk, 1273–96 * ??? * William de Fogo, 1310–1329 * Thomas de Soutra, 1333 x 1335-x1342 * William de St Andrews, 1342–1376 * Gilbert de Roxburgh, 1391–1392 * David Benyng (or Binning), 1394–1422 * John Fogo, 1425–1434 * Richard Londy (or Lundy), 1440–1444 * Andrew Hunter, 1444-1465 *

Robert Blackadder Robert Blackadder was a medieval Scottish cleric, diplomat and politician, who was abbot of Melrose, bishop-elect of Aberdeen and bishop of Glasgow; when the last was elevated to archiepiscopal status in 1492, he became the first ever archbisho ...

, 1471–1483 * Richard Lamb, 1472-1483 * John Brown (or Carnecorss), 1483–1486 * ???, 1486Died soon after election; name unknown. * ???, 1486 * David Brown, 1486-1507/10 ** Bernard Bell, rival to David Brown, 1486–1503 ** William Turnbull, rival to David Brown, 1503-1507 * Robert Betoun, 1507/10-1521 x 1524 * John Maxwell, 1524-1526 * Andrew Durie, 1525-1541

List of Commendators

* James Stewart, 1535-1557 * Louis de Guise, 1558-1559 * James Balfour, 1559–1564 * Michael Balfour, 1564–1568 * James Douglas of Lochleven,Second son of

. 1569-1620

Notes

Bibliography

* Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., ''Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Man'', Second Edition, (London, 1976), pp. 76–77 * Fawcett, Richard, & Oram, Richard, ''Melrose Abbey'', (Stroud, 2004) * Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), ''The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries'' (The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24), (Edinburgh, 2001), pp. 149–55 {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot Of Melrose Abbots of Melrose Melrose Scotland religion-related lists