Sir Reginald Mure of Abercorn and Cowdams

SIR REGINALD MORE OF ABERCORN

William Muir, the editor of Sir William Mure of Rowallan's account of that family added the following note to a mention of the House of Caldwell: "Crawfurd, derives the Mures of Caldwell from Gilchrist, who appears in 1363, a younger son of Sir Reginald More of Abercorne; and says that Sir Reginald, who was Lord Chamberlain of Scotland, temp. David 11. obtained Abercorne by marriage of one of the co-heiresses of the Grahams of Eskdale. The connection, however, of the family of Abercorne, with the house of Rowallane, appears not to be very distinctly ascertained: neither does the present account seem more certainly to fix that point." The Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane: 39

From The Scottish Nation - Mure

The Mures of Caldwell in Renfrewshire are directly descended from Sir Reginald Mure of Abercorn and Cowdams, who appears to have been chamberlain of Scotland as early as 1329, the first year of the reign of David II.

He is supposed to have been the same Reginald whose name appears with that of Gilchrist More in the Ragman Roll, as having sworn fealty to Edward I. in 1296. His paternal inheritance seems to have been Cowdams in Ayrshire, which belonged to him previously to 1326, as an agreement concerning these lands between him and the monks of Paisley is dated in that year. Mr. Mure of Caldwell is still their feudal superior.

Gilchrist More, here mentioned, was Sir Reginald’s son. He received the half of the estate of Caldwell on his marriage with the daughter of Caldwell of that ilk. Johannes Mure, jun. de Cowdams, appears in 1446, as one of the commissioners for fixing the boundaries of the burgh of Prestwick, near Ayr.

Sir Reginald, who was granduncle of the queen, Elizabeth Mure, first wife of Robert I., acquired his extensive estates of Abercorn, &c., in the Lothians and Stirlingshire, by marriage with one of the coheiresses of Sir John Graham of Eskdale and Abercorn. He adhered steadily to the cause of David II. in the Baliol wars with England, and was one of the commissioners appointed in 1340 to treat with the lords Percy, Moubray, and Neville of a truce between the two kingdoms.

With one daughter, he had two sons, William, who succeeded to Abercorn, and died without male issue, and Gilchrist More, already mentioned, who carried on the line of the family.

Notes

From The Mures of Rowallan

"In the Ragman Roll, among those barons who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, we find the names of Gilchrist More of Craig and Reginald More de Craig, that is, the Craig of Rowallan. The former is stated to have been the ancestor of the Mures of Polkellie, who, Nisbet thinks, were "the stem of the Mures, and an ancienter family than the Rowallan." The latter was in 1329 chamberlain of Scotland."

From Stirnet Genealogy, Peter Barns-Graham, Mure01:

"Commoners' throws doubt on the suggestion that Sir Reginald was son of Sir Adam of Rowallan as his inheritance was Cowdams which was originally owned by the original family of Mure of Polkelly (Pokellie) which may have originally been the senior line of the Mure family in Scotland."

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Sources

1. Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography ..., Volume 1.  edited by Francis Hindes Groome. Page 5. "Abercorn." "The Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose, received from David I. (1124-63) the lands of Abercorn, which came by marriage to Sir Reginald Mure, chamberlain of Scotland in 1329."

Links

• http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getper...

Sir Lord William Mure of Abercorn was born about 1298, in Scotland, his father, Robert Reginald Mure, was 18 and his mother, Sybilla de Graham Heiress of Dalkeith, was 18. He married Marion Cameron. He died in 1382, in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, at the age of 84, and was buried in Scotland.