The Prior, then Abbot and then Commendator of Dunfermline was the head of the
Benedictine monastic community of
Dunfermline Abbey,
Fife,
Scotland. The abbey itself was founded in 1128 by King
David I of Scotland, but was of earlier origin. King
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ("Malcolm III") had founded a church there with the help of Benedictines from
Canterbury. Monks had been sent there in the reign of
Étgar mac Maíl Choluim (Edgar, 1097–1107) and
Anselm had sent a letter requesting that Étgar's brother and successor King
Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim (Alexander I, 1107–1124) protect these monks. By 1120, when Alaxandair sent a delegation to Canterbury to secure
Eadmer for the
bishopric of St Andrews, there is a Prior of the Dunfermline monks by the name of Peter leading the delegation. Control of the abbey was secularized in the 16th century and after the accession of
James Stewart in 1500, the abbey was held by commendators. In the second half of the 16th century, the abbey's lands were being carved up into lordships and it was finally annexed to the crown in July, 1593.
Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man, Second Edition, (London, 1976), pp. 58–59
Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries (The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24), (Edinburgh, 2001), p. 67–73