Devorguilla
Abernethy
formerly [surname unknown]
Born about [location unknown]
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of
Laurence (Abernathy) Abernethy
— married
1210 [location unknown]
Descendants 
Mother of
Patrick (Abernethy) de Abernethy, Hugh Abernethy, William (Abernethy) Abernethy Ist of Saltoun and Marjory (Abernathy) Douglas
Died [date unknown]
[location unknown]
Profile last modified
| Created 14 Aug 2011
This page has been accessed 2,395 times.
Contents |
Biography
Devorguile appears, in history, as the wife of Lawrence de Abernethy, the last to hold the office of Lay Abbot and later Lord of Abernethy. Their names are recorded as visitors to the shrine of St. Cuthbert at Durham early in the thirteenth century, but history does not record who she was.[1]
Other than this singular fact there is nothing recorded about her, including date of birth or marriage. However it is known that Hugh, the second son, was likely of age in 1233 when he receives a grant of the lands of Oxton and Lyleston, Lauderdale.[2] This would make his birth c. 1210. hence it might be presumed that Devorguile was born c. 1190.
Sources
References
- ↑ #S-1 Sir James Balfour Paul; Vol. 7, page 398
- ↑ #S-1 Sir James Balfour Paul; Vol. 7, page 399
Source
- Source S-1 Balfour Paul. The Scots peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom; Volume 7. Vol. 7. Edinburgh: Douglas, 1904. archive.org
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Rejected matches › Devorguilla (Galloway) de Balliol (1218-1290)
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Sources: Kraentzler 1122; Kings and Queens of Britain; Paget; A. Roots 94, 184A, 236. Eventual sole heiress of her mother. She and John founded Balliol College, Oxford. K&Q: Devorgill of Galloway, daughter of Alan. Paget: Devorguilla, daughter of Alan. Eventual sole heiress of her mother. Roots: Devorguilla of Galloway. Line 94 says she was the daughter of Alan. Line 184A and 236 (latest info?) says she was the daughter of Roland, the father of Alan. K: Devorguille de Galloway, daughter of Rolland.
Devorgilla founded Sweetheart Abbey in memory of her husband, John Balliol. They are both buried there.
Dervorguilla of Galloway From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devorguilla_Balliol
Dervorguilla of Galloway a.k.a Derborgaill or Dearbhorghil (c.1210 - January 28, 1290) was a lady of substance during the 13th century, and wife from 1223 of John, 5th Baron de Balliol. She was a daughter and a heiress of Celtic Lord Alan of Galloway and his second wife Margaret of Huntingdon. Through her mother, she was a descendent of king David I of Scotland.
Born in or around 1210, she was a grand-daughter of Maud of Chester, and of David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, himself the youngest brother to two Kings of Scotland, Malcolm IV and William the Lion, Dervorguilla's mother Margaret being the couple's eldest daughter.
As her father died without sons, according to both Anglo-Norman feudal laws and to ancient Gaelic customs, she was one of his heiresses. Some may regard such manner unusual in England, but it was less uncommon in Scotland and in Western feudal tradition. She brought thus remarkable lands in Galloway to her descendants, the Balliol and the Comyns.
Dervorguilla's son John of Scotland was briefly a King of Scots too, albeit known as Toom Tabard (Scots: "puppet king").
The Balliol family into which she married was based at Barnard Castle in County Durham, England. Although the date of her birth is uncertain, it should be noted that her apparent age of 13 was by no means unusually early for betrothal and marriage at the time.
In 1263, Sir John was required to make penance after a land dispute with Walter Kirkham, Bishop of Durham, part of which took the very expensive form of founding a College of University of Oxford, which retains his name as Balliol College. His own finances were less substantial than those of his wife, however, and long after his death it fell to Dervorguilla to confirm the foundation, with the blessing of that same Bishop of Durham as well as the University hierarchy, and establish a permanent endowment for the College in 1282, as well as a Code of Statutes which still (ostensibly) governs the College now. The college was for the poor.
Dervorguilla founded a Cistercian Abbey 7 miles south of Dumfries in West Scotland, in April 1273, which still stands as a picturesque ruin of red sandstone.
When John de Balliol died in 1269, Dervorguilla had his heart embalmed and kept in a casket of ivory bound with silver, which accompanied her life and travels until her own death in 1289.
In her last years, the main line of the royal House of Scotland became precarious in its dearth of heirs. Dervorguilla was the heiress after them in genealogical primogeniture.
She died just before the young Queen Margaret of Scotland, otherwise she may have been one of claimants of her throne. She was then buried at the Dumfries Abbey, which was christened 'Sweetheart Abbey', which name it retains to this day, beside her husband.
She and John appear to have had seven children, all styled 'de Balliol'; Hugh, born 1238 and dying long before his mother in 1271; John, born 1250 and dying 1313; Alan, Alexander, Cecilia, Alianora and Marjory, about whom much less is known.
However, due to deaths of her childless elder two sons, her third and youngest surviving son John Balliol was king of Scotland for four years (1292-96), asserting a claim in 1290 when queen Margaret died, and winning in arbitration against the rival Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale in 1292.
Sources Much of the above is taken from 'Sweetheart Abbey' guidebook, by J S Richardson HRSA, LLD, FSA.Scotland, published by the Ministry of Works 1951.
The biography 'Dervorguilla, Lady of Galloway', by the colourful classicist Wentworth Huyshe (1913) is condemned as 'romantic twaddle and error' by the historians of Balliol College.