MORTIMER, Bernard of Craigievar ¹

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  General Notes:

"Roger Mortimer (fl. 1188-1217?), sheriff of Perth [ ....] His line continued in his son Hugh Mortimer (fl. 1221-35). His grandson may have been William Mortimer, who was lord of Fowlis Easter from at least 1244 to 1262. Another Roger Mortimer was lord there in 1296 and, in 1327, another William Mortimer was lord. Their descendants remained at Fowlis Easter until 1377, when Janet, daughter of the last Roger Mortimer of Fowlis Easter, married Sir Andrew Grey.Even after that, Mortimer descendants remained in the area, one in particular being Bernard Mortimer (fl. 1404), who is reputed to have been the ancestor of the Mortimers of Craigievar ⁶. They latter family bore for their arms argent, a lion rampant sable guttée d'argent, which probably reflect the arms their ancestors at Fowlis Easter had borne since the thirteenth century." (page 52)

"(Note) ⁶: National Archives of Scotland: RH1/2/171, dated September 1404: 'John de Moueth of Fowlis in favour of Andrew de Lesly, Bernard de Mortimer and John de Abercrumby, as procurators for resigning, of Ester Fowlis Mouathe.' "

".... 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)." (pages 112-113)

from The Medieval Mortimer Family ²

  Research Notes:

RELATIONSHIP

Bernard Mortimer is presented here as the son of William Mortimer of Inverbervie, but there is no direct evidence of this. The arms of the Craigievar Mortimers establish the link between them and the Mortimers of Easter Fowlis, but the exact line of descent is not fully clear as yet. Bernard Mortimer may have been in some other relationship to William, so the father-son link should be treated with caution. However, when put together with the evidence of the heraldic emblems common to both the Mortimers of Fowlis and the Mortimers of Craigievar the chronology contributes to a father-son link as being at least a distinct possibility.

Bernard married.