The Abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

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

Melrose Abbey

Melrose Abbey is a Gothic-style abbey in Melrose, Scotland. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks, on the request of King David I of Scotland. It was headed by the Abbot or Commendator of Melrose. Today the abbey is maintained by Historic Scotland...

, in Melrose in the Borders region

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The abbey was founded in 1136 on the patronage of David I

David I of Scotland

David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...

 (Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim), King of Scots, by Cistercian monks from Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey headed by the Abbot of Rievaulx. It is located in Rievaulx , near Helmsley in North Yorkshire, England.It was one of the wealthiest abbeys in England and was dissolved by Henry VIII of England in 1538...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. 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

William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton was the son of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven and Margaret Erskine, a former mistress of James V of Scotland. Sir William's half-brother from his mother's liaison with the king was James Stewart, Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland from 1567 until his...

 (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
  Waltheof
  Waltheof was a 12th century English abbot and saint. He was the son of Simon I of St Liz, 1st Earl of Northampton and Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon, thus stepson to David I of Scotland, and the grandson of Waltheof, Earl of Northampton.As a younger son in the world of Norman succession laws,...
  
  , 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
  Adam of Melrose
  Adam of Melrose was Abbot of Melrose and Bishop of Caithness, famously burned to death by the husbandmen of Caithness.He rose to the position of Abbot in 1207, and on 5 August 1213, was elected to the bishopric of Caithness, then based at Halkirk. On 11 May 1214, he was consecrated by William de...
  
  , 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
  Robert de Keldeleth was a 13th century Benedictine and then Cistercian abbot. He started his senior career as Abbot of Dunfermline , becoming Chancellor of Scotland later in the 1240s...
  
  , 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
  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 archbishop of Glasgow...
  
  , 1471–1483
• Richard Lamb, 1472-1483
• John Brown (or Carnecorss), 1483–1486
• ???, 1486
• ???, 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
  Andrew Durie
  Andrew Durie , bishop of Galloway and abbot of Melrose, was the son of John Durie of Durie in Fife, and brother to George Durie, abbot of Dunfermline and archdeacon of St. Andrews.-Early career and abbacy of Melrose:...
  
  , 1525-1541

List of Commendators

• James Stewart, 1535-1557
• Louis de Guise
  Louis I, Cardinal of Guise
  Louis de Lorraine was the fourth son of Claude, Duke of Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon, and the younger brother of Charles of Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine. He was the nephew of Cardinal Jean de Lorraine...
  
  , 1558-1559
• James Balfour, 1559–1564
• Michael Balfour, 1564–1568
• James Douglas of Lochleven, 1569-1620