The Abbot and then Commendator of Melrose was the head of the monastic community of Melrose Abbey, in Melrose in the Borders region of Scotland. 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 (Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim), King of Scots, by Cistercian monks from Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire. 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 (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".[1] Lochleven however resumed the title of commendator in 1613 until his death in 1620.
^Ian B. Cowan, & David E. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976), p. 77.
^One authority claims that he resigned because of infirmity (at Melrose) on 24 July 1261, while another claims that he was deposed at Rievaulx by the Abbot of Rievaulx.
^Although the First Scottish War of Independence was taking place at this time, the length of "vacancy" nevertheless implies that at least one person held the abbacy post between 1296 and 1310.
^One source mentions an abbot called William for 2 June 1460, but this looks like it's probably a mistake.
^Was elected by the brethren and received recognition from the bishop of Glasgow; Blackadder had had the abbacy reserved to him without taking up the monastic habit, but by 1476 resigned his claim, probably in return for a pension. Lamb contracted leprosy a few years before his death.
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
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