The Prior

Prior

Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...

, then 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 Dunfermline was the head of the Benedictine monastic community of Dunfermline Abbey

Dunfermline Abbey

Dunfermline Abbey is as a Church of Scotland Parish Church located in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. In 2002 the congregation had 806 members. The minister is the Reverend Alastair Jessamine...

, Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, 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 itself was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland

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...

, but was of earlier origin. King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada

Malcolm III of Scotland

Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...

 ("Malcolm III") had founded a church there with the help of Benedictines from Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

. Monks had been sent there in the reign of Étgar mac Maíl Choluim

Edgar of Scotland

Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim , nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant" , was king of Alba from 1097 to 1107...

 (Edgar, 1097-1107) and Anselm

Anselm

Anselm may refer to any of several historical figures, or their works:*Saint Anselm, Duke of Friuli, 8th-century Abbot of Nonantula*Anselm of Farfa , abbot*Anselm II *Anselm of Liège , chronicler...

 had sent a letter requesting that Étgar's brother and successor King Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim

Alexander I of Scotland

Alexander I , also called Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim and nicknamed "The Fierce", was King of the Scots from 1107 to his death.-Life:...

 (Alexander I, 1107–1124) protect these monks. By 1120, when Alaxandair sent a delegation to Canterbury to secure Eadmer

Eadmer

Eadmer, or Edmer , was an English historian, theologian, and ecclesiastic. He is known for being a contemporary biographer of his contemporary archbishop and companion, Saint Anselm, in his Vita Anselmi, and for his Historia novorum in Anglia, which presents the public face of Anselm...

 for the bishopric of St Andrews, there is a Prior of the Dunfermline monks by the name of Peter leading the delegation. Control of the abbey was secularized in the 16th century and after the accession of James Stewart

James Stewart, Duke of Ross

James Stewart, Duke of Ross was the son of King James III of Scotland and Margaret of Denmark.-Titles and Offices:He was made Marquess of Ormond at his baptism...

 in 1500, the abbey was held by commendators. In the second half of the 16th century, the abbey's lands were being carved up into lordships and it was finally annexed to the crown in July, 1593.

List of Abbots

• Geoffrey I
  Geoffrey of Canterbury
  Geoffrey was a twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Benedictine monk and abbot. Of Anglo-Norman origin, he became monastic head of the Benedictine priory at Canterbury, before moving to Scotland to be the first Abbot of Dunfermline...
  
  , 1128-1154
• Geoffrey II, 1154-1178
• Archibald, 1178-1198
• Robert de Berwick, 1198-1202
• Patrick, 1202-1217x1223
• William I, 1223
• William II, 1223 x 1226-1238
• Geoffrey III, 1238-1240
• 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...
  
  , 1240-1252
• John, 1252-1256
• Matthew, 1256
• Simon, 1267-1275
• Radulf de Greenlaw, 1275-1296
• Hugh, 1304x1306-1313
• Robert de Crail, 1314-1328
• Alexander Ber, c. 1328-9-1350 x 1351
• John Black, 1351
• John de Stramiglot, 1351-1383x1388
• William de Angus, 1383
• John de Torry, 1388-1409
• William de St Andrews (Anderston), 1413-1426
• Robert de Scotland, 1418-1419
• William Brown, 1427
• Andrew de Kirkcaldy, 1427-1444
• Richard de Bothwell, 1444-1468
• Alexander Thomson, c. 1470
• Henry Crichton, 1471-1482
• Adam Cant, 1483-1490
• George Crichton, 1490-1500
  • Opposed by Raphael Riario, 1491-1492
  • Opposed by Robert Swinton, 1492
  • Opposed by Thomas Cranston, 1492
  • Opposed by Andrew Pictoris, 1492

List of Commendators

• James Stewart
  James Stewart, Duke of Ross
  James Stewart, Duke of Ross was the son of King James III of Scotland and Margaret of Denmark.-Titles and Offices:He was made Marquess of Ormond at his baptism...
  
  , 1500-1504
• Gilbert Strachan, 1504
• James Beaton
  James Beaton
  Dr. James Beaton was a Scottish church leader, the uncle of Dr. David Cardinal Beaton and the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland....
  
  , 1504-1509
• Alexander Stewart
  Alexander Stewart (Archbishop of St Andrews)
  Alexander Stewart was an illegitimate son of King James IV of Scotland and his mistress Marion Boyd. He was the eldest illegitimate child of King James IV of Scotland his mistress Marion Boyd...
  
  , 1509-1513
• James Hepburn, 1513-1516
• Peter de Accoltis, 1514
• Andrew Forman
  Andrew Forman
  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 the headship of several monasteries....
  
  , 1514-1521
• James Beaton (again), 1522-1539
• George Durie
  George Durie
  George Durie [Dury confused by Watt & Shead with Drury] , abbot of Dunfermline and archdeacon of St Andrews, son of John Durie of Durie in the county of Fife, and brother to Andrew Durie, bishop of Galloway, was born about 1496. From 1527 till 1530 he acted as judge and executor of the monastery of...
  
  , 1526/39-1572
• Robert Pitcairn, 1553/72-1584
• Henry Pitcairn, 1582/4-1593
  • Patrick, Master of Gray, 1585-1587
  • George, Earl of Huntly
    George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly
    George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly was a Scottish nobleman who took a leading role in the political and military life of Scotland in the late 16th century and around the time of the Union of the Crowns.-Biography:...
    
    , 1587