Richard Comyn (d. c 1179) was a Scottish noble, the son of
William ComynWilliam Comyn was Chancellor of Scotland.He came from Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire. He was among the Norman landowners who emigrated to Scotland by invitation of King David I of Scotland, who also held land in England as Earl of Huntingdon. This Comyn family were direct male descendants of Robert...
and Maud Bassett.
Richard was probably born between 1115 and 1123. In 1144 William Comyn gave him
NorthallertonNorthallerton is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It has a population of 15,741 according to the 2001 census...
Castle, which he had built a few years earlier. The following year, Richard was married to Hextilda, the daughter of Uchtred, Lord of Tynedale, and his wife Bethoc ingen Domnaill Bain, the daughter of King
Donald III of ScotlandDomnall mac Donnchada , anglicised as Donald III, and nicknamed Domnall Bán, "Donald the Fair" , was King of Scots from 1094–1097...
.
In Scotland, he acquired the position of
Justiciar of LothianThe Justiciar of Lothian was an important legal office in the High Medieval Kingdom of Scotland.The Justiciars of Lothian were responsible for the administration of royal justice in the province of Lothian, a much larger area than the modern Lothian, covering Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde,...
: he witnessed 6 charters for
King Malcolm IVMalcolm IV , nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" , King of Scots, was the eldest son of Earl Henry and Ada de Warenne...
and 33 for
King William IWilliam I , known as the Lion or Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of Scots from 1165 to 1214. His reign was the second longest in Scottish history before the Act of Union with England in 1707,...
.
Richard Comyn (d. c 1179) was a Scottish noble, the son of
William ComynWilliam Comyn was Chancellor of Scotland.He came from Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire. He was among the Norman landowners who emigrated to Scotland by invitation of King David I of Scotland, who also held land in England as Earl of Huntingdon. This Comyn family were direct male descendants of Robert...
and Maud Bassett.
Richard was probably born between 1115 and 1123. In 1144 William Comyn gave him
NorthallertonNorthallerton is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It has a population of 15,741 according to the 2001 census...
Castle, which he had built a few years earlier. The following year, Richard was married to Hextilda, the daughter of Uchtred, Lord of Tynedale, and his wife Bethoc ingen Domnaill Bain, the daughter of King
Donald III of ScotlandDomnall mac Donnchada , anglicised as Donald III, and nicknamed Domnall Bán, "Donald the Fair" , was King of Scots from 1094–1097...
.
In Scotland, he acquired the position of
Justiciar of LothianThe Justiciar of Lothian was an important legal office in the High Medieval Kingdom of Scotland.The Justiciars of Lothian were responsible for the administration of royal justice in the province of Lothian, a much larger area than the modern Lothian, covering Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde,...
: he witnessed 6 charters for
King Malcolm IVMalcolm IV , nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" , King of Scots, was the eldest son of Earl Henry and Ada de Warenne...
and 33 for
King William IWilliam I , known as the Lion or Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of Scots from 1165 to 1214. His reign was the second longest in Scottish history before the Act of Union with England in 1707,...
. He was captured with King William in 1174 and was a hostage for him in the
Treaty of FalaiseThe Treaty of Falaise was an agreement made in December 1174 by the captive William I, King of Scots, and the English King Henry II.Having been captured at the Battle of Alnwick, during an invasion of Northumbria, William was being held in Falaise in Normandy, while Henry sent an army north and...
. He gave, with Hextida's consent, lands to the monks at
HexhamHexham Abbey is a place of Christian worship dedicated to St Andrew and located in the town of Hexham, Northumberland, in northeast England...
,
KelsoKelso Abbey is a Scottish abbey built in the 12th century by a community of Tironensian monks who had moved from the nearby Selkirk Abbey. The monks constructed the Abbey on land granted to them by King David I...
and
HolyroodHolyrood Abbey is a ruined Augustinian Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was built in 1128 at the order of King David I of Scotland.-Etymology of name:...
. He died between 1179 and 1182. Hextilda remarried to
Máel Coluim, Earl of AthollMáel Coluim of Atholl was Mormaer of Atholl between 1153/9 and the 1190s.The Chronicle of Holyrood tells us that in 1186 Máel Coluim had an outlaw called Adam mac Domnaill killed at the altar of a church in Coupar, and burned 58 of his associates inside the church...
(also called Malcolm).
Children
Richard had four sons by Hextilda:
- John, dead between 1152 and 1159, and buried at Kelso Abbey.
- William
William Comyn was one of four sons of Richard Comyn, Justiciar of Lothian and Hextilda of Tynedale. He was born Scotland, in Altyre, Moray in 1163 and died in Buchan in 1233 where he is buried in Deer Abbey...
, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan.
- Odinel (also called Odo), a priest, witness to Richard's charters to religious houses in 1162 and 1166.
- Simon, mentioned in the 1166 charter to the Augustinians
The Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , are several Christian monastic orders and congregations of both men and women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of Saint Augustine...
in Holyrood.
and three daughters:
His daughters were witnesses to a donation made by Máel Coluim, Earl of Atholl and their mother Hextilda to the Church of St Cuthbert in
DurhamDurham is a city in the North East of England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county....
.