Gospatric (sheriff of Roxburgh)
Encyclopedia
Gospatric is the first known sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

 of Roxburgh
Roxburgh
Roxburgh , also known as Rosbroch, is a village, civil parish and now-destroyed royal burgh. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland...

, a burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...

 in Teviotdale. His father is thought to have been Uhtred son of Ulfkill.

A Cospatricio vicecomite ("Gospatric the Sheriff") is mentioned in the foundation charter of Selkirk Abbey. The charter was issued by Earl David
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...

 and probably dates to between either 1120 and 1121, or 1123 and 1124, though it could be as early as 1114.

A Gospatricus Vicecomes ("Gospatric the Sheriff") witnessed a grant by David, now king of Scotland, to Durham Cathedral Priory
Durham Cathedral Priory
Durham Priory was a Benedictine priory associated with Durham Cathedral, located in Durham in the North-East of England. It was founded in 1083 and was dissolved led to the replacement of the house with a college of secular canons led by a dean in 1540...

, sometime between April 1126 and March 1127.

He witnessed a grant of land in Roxburgh to the church of St John of the castle of Roxburgh
Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle was a castle sited near Kelso, in the Borders region of Scotland, in the former Roxburghshire.-History:The castle was founded by King David I. In 1174 it was surrendered to England after the capture of William I at Alnwick, and was often in English hands thereafter. The Scots made...

 sometime between 1124 and 1133. Although Archibald C. Lawrie was uncertain what sheriffdom Gospatric held, G. W. S. Barrow
G. W. S. Barrow
Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow DLitt FBA FRSE is a British historian and academic. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, and arguably the most prominent Scottish medievalist of the last century....

and Norman Reid believed it to be Roxburghshire because of this charter.
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