William Comyn Chancellor of Scotland

  General Notes:

In J. Horance Round's article titled "The Origin of the Comyns," in the July 1904, Vol. X of The Ancestor, pp. 108-119, Round examines the validity of the pedigree given for the early Comyn family in The Scots Peerage, Vol. I. He confirms William and Richard, the husband of Hexitlda of Tynedale, but shows that there is no evidence of the earlier ancestors of William and Richard that are given in The Scot's Peerage, Vol. I. ¹²⁷⁵

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹²⁷⁵
According to Symeon of Durham (Rolls Series), ii, p. 316, Richard Cumin is named as the son of William Cumin, chancellor to King David of Scotland. William Cumin had been a clerk of Geoffrey, Bishop of Durham before Geoffrey's accession to that see in 1133. William first appearance as chancellor about the same time. Bishop Geoffrey, who had trained William Cumin, had been King Henry's Chancellor since 1123 [Feudal England, p. 485].

King David of Scotland was accompanied by his chancellor to the disastrous Battle of the Standard, 1138, when the army of Scotland was shattered by the English levies, and William was captured and kept prisoner at Durham until he was released from captivity as a clerk by the Papal Legate.

~The Ancestor, Vol. X, pp. 108-110