| He was the first of his name (Montgomery/Montgomerie) who settled in Scotland, was probably of good birth, and may have been a cadet of the family whose name he bore, though his relationship to them is not clearly proved. If, however, he was a son of Arnulf Montgomerie as suggested, he must have been a man aged upwards of fifty years when he is first named in Scottish writs, none of those in which he appears being dated before 1164. It is more probable that he was of a younger generation, but on this point history is silent, and the family writs which might have cleared up the matter were destroyed by a fire which consumed Eglinton Castle about the year 1528. From the fact that Robert Montgomerie appears as a witness in some of the earliest grants made by Walter FitzAlan, the first High Steward of Scotland, to his newly founded Abbey of Paisley, it has been concluded, and perhaps with truth, that he was one of those Normans who came north with, or soon after, the High Steward, and received from him grants of lands in Scotland.5 |
| It is to be noted that while Walter FitzAlan came to Scotland in the reign of King David I, and was High Steward and in possession of large territories before that monarch's death in 1153, it is not until after the date of the charter by King Malcolm IV, on 24 June 1161 or 1162, confirming his grandfather's grant to the Steward, and adding to it, that we have evidence of Montgomerie's presence in Scotlaud. He does not appear in the foundation charter of Paisley, which was granted about July 1163, at Fotheringhay, one of King Malcolm's manors in England, but his name occurs in the charter endowing the monastery, which was dated some time later, not before 1165, as King William was then on the throne. He appears also as a witness to other charters to the Abbey of Paisley, and to the Abbeys of Kelso and Melrose about the same period, between 1165 and 1177. He also witnessed two charters by the first High Steward to St. Peter's at York, after 1165. According to Sir William Fraser, he had from the first High Steward a grant of the lands of Eaglesham in Renfrewshire, but this is conjectural, though the lands were in possession of his family at a later date. It has been stated that he married a daughter of the High Steward, but there are no evidence for that. Sir William Fraser places the date of Robert Montgomerie's death about 1178, but there is reason to believe he lived longer, as he was certainly alive in August 1179, and perhaps some time later.6 |