Family Story - Robertus dominus de Rodyrforde

I have published on this website in the family story section a write-up to do with Robertus dominus de Rodyrforde. You will encounter him all throughtout the internet being stated as the first man bearing the Rutherford name in Scotland and often also placed as the first in the larger Rutherford tree.

I do not agree with those who place him as the first of the Rutherford tree, mind you I do not agree with the first few generations on the 'known' Rutherford tree, due to Y-DNA testing results and first-hand documents I have come across in my research.

What I have written is about is what I got from encounters with some people about this man, especially because there is a mix out there of those who believe he existed and those that don't - I will state here and now, I just don't know if he ever did or did not exist as I have so far not encounted him is any first-hand documents I have seen from the 1100s. I would assume that even though the charter referrred to including Robertus witnessing is missing, he should appear as witnessing other charters. I assume this because as I have found with other people from back then - if you have witnessed one charter, then you will witness others.

After communicating with a couple of people about Robertus and what evidence there is for him, I became more interested in tracing the history, of finding out who first mentioned him. I ahve included a table of the published documents mentioning Robertus. To date the first published mention of Robertus dominus de Rodyrforde was in 1813 which refered to a situation back in 1739 mentioning Robert.

Perhaps some day someone will find the charter that Robertus was supposed to have witnessed or another charter including him, which will prove he did exist. However, until that happens we just will never know one way or the other.

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