MORTIMER, William of Attleborough and Aberdour ^{1 2}

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  General Notes:

"For many years scholars have been aware of the close connections between the Mortimers of Attleborough and the Scottish crown. In 1936 the editors of the Complete Peerage wrote of William Mortimer of Attleborough,

'As William, constable, de Mortimer he witnessed a Norfolk charter of Richard de Baliol c. 1155 and as William de Mortimer, two charters of William the Lion of Scotland, of which one was granted in 1166. He fought with the Scots at Alnwick, 13 July 1174, where he was taken prisoner by Sir Bernard de Baliol , and was one of the pledges for the King of Scotland under the treaty of Falaise late in the year.'

What has now emerged from the People of Medieval Scotland database is just how closely connected the Mortimers of Attleborough were with William the Lion, king of Scotland from 1165 to 1214, and his brother, David, earl of Huntingdon (d. 1219). William Mortimer witnessed no fewer that twenty-two of King William's charters, in addition to one by the king's mother Ada de Warenne; and one by the king's brother, David, earl of Huntingdon. At least four of these charters were sealed between 1165 and 1168, and at least thirteen were sealed between 1173 and 1180, showing a remarkable consistency of attendance at the Scottish court from the time that William became king \endash but no presence before then. What is more, as all his acts after 1165 seem to have been in Scotland, he seems to have devoted himself wholly to his Scottish overlords. It is also worth noting that there is no mention of any other Mortimer active in Scotland in these years. There can be no doubt that the first Mortimer in Scotland was not just a namesake of William Mortimer, lord of Attleborough, he was William Mortimer, lord of Attleboroough."

from The Medieval Mortimer Family ¹

  Research Notes:

ORIGINS OF MORTIMERS IN SCOTLAND

After outlining in detail the problems with the claim that Alan Mortimer was the common ancestor of the Mortimers in Scotland, Ian Mortimer says:

"To sum up, there is no contemporary evidence that anyone called Alan Mortimer existed in the twelfth or thirteenth century anywhere in the British Isles. There is no evidence that anyone called John de Vipont so much as set foot in Scotland or even existed in the early twelfth century. However, there is good evidence that the Mortimer family first appeared in Scotland in the reign of their kinsman, William the Lion, very shortly after his accession in 1165, and there is good evidence that they received Aberdour not long before 1180, as William Mortimer made his first presentation to the living shortly before that date.3 There is also good evidence that a grant of lands to Inchcolm Abbey was made by a Mortimer lord of Aberdour \endash but that it was made by William, not Alan, and in about 1180, and certainly not before 1179."

[ ....]

"In the same generation (as Roger Mortimer, husband of Christian Maule) we come across two other men in Scotland who regularly acted in unison. Bartholomew Mortimer and Constantine Mortimer both witnessed the same four Scottish charters in the first decade of the twelfth century, with Bartholomew always being the first named and thus more senior of the two. All four charters were grants by David, earl of Huntingdon, brother of King William. As stated in Part 2a: the Mortimer family of Attleborough, there are good reasons for believing these men were also the younger sons of William Mortimer (fl. 1155-80) \endash and that Hugh Mortimer, prior of May (fl. 1198-1206) was too. As a result, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the medieval Scottish Mortimers descend from the younger sons of William Mortimer (d. 1180). Or, to be more specific, that they descend from Roger and Constantine Mortimer, who both had sons of their own in the early thirteenth century.

Finally, we can correlate this with the heraldic evidence. As noted above, almost all the examples of Mortimer heraldry in Scotland before modern times are variations on a single coat of arms: argent, a lion rampant sable guttée d'argent. Obviously this design is nothing like the arms of the Mortimers of Attleborough or any other English branch of the family. This suggests that it was developed at an early date \endash before heraldry had reached the point at which a younger son would simply have used his father's arms with a cadence mark to denote difference. However, as all the Scottish arms are so similar, they all appear to descend from one family, namely the Mortimers of Fowlis Easter. As mentioned above (in Part 2a, under Roger Mortimer (fl. 1188-1217?), the ancestor of the Mortimers of Craigievar, Bernard Mortimer, had links to the Mortimers of Fowlis Easter. It is therefore significant that his Mortimer descendants at Craigievar bore exactly these arms. Thus it would appear that the common ancestor of the armigerous Mortimers of Scotland is to be found in the progenitor of this family at Fowlis Easter from about 1190, namely Roger Mortimer, who was almost certainly the son of William Mortimer of Attleborough (d. 1180)"

from The Medieeval Mortimer Family ¹

William married.