Robert de Umfraville (nobleman, † around 1145)

Elsdon Castle was the first seat of the Umfravilles in Northumberland

Robert de Umfraville († around 1145) was an Anglo-Scottish nobleman.

Robert was believed to be the founder of the Umfraville family , which was one of the most important noble families in the Scottish Marches in the Middle Ages . Presumably he received Prudhoe in Northumberland from King Henry I in the 1120s , where he built Prudhoe Castle south of Tyne to protect the road between Carlisle and Newcastle . For this purpose he was given the task of pacifying the valley of Redesdale , which was undeveloped and served as a retreat for robbers. For this he built Elsdon Castle , which initially became his headquarters. He was also active in Scotland . Around 1120 he attested the document with which the later King David I. Selkirk Abbey founded. Until the middle of the 1140s he attested to other documents for David and his son Heinrich . Presumably David I gave him lands at Kinnaird and Dunipace in Stirlingshire as a fief.

Umfraville probably had at least two sons:

• Odinel de Umfraville († around 1166)
• Gilbert de Umfraville († 1175)

First his son Odinel inherited his property, after his death around 1166 Gilbert, who was probably his younger brother, became his heir.

Web links

• Henry Summerson: Robert de Umfraville [i] (c.1120 – c.1145). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ^ Adrian Pettifer: English Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 1995, ISBN 0-85115-782-3 , pp. 183 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed March 8, 2017]).