Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, Robert (1078?-1141)
BRUCE, ROBERT de II (1078?–1141), was son of Robert I, and companion of David I of Scotland at the court of Henry I. He received from David I a grant of Annandale, then called Strath Annent, by a charter c. 1124 (A. P. Scot. i. 92, from the original in Brit. Mus. Cartæ Antiquæ, xviii. 45). It was bounded by the lands of Donegal, of Strathnith (Nithsdale), and those of Ranulf de Meschines, earl of Chester, in Cumberland, and embraced the largest part of the county of Dumfries. Like David, a benefactor of the church, Robert de Bruce founded a monastery of canons regular at Guisburn in Cleveland with the consent of his wife Agnes and Adam his eldest son. The church of Middleburgh, with certain lands attached to it, was given by him to the monks of Whitby as a cell of Guisburn, and his manors of Appleton and Hornby to the monks of St. Mary at York. Along with Bernard de Baliol of Barnard Castle he tried to make terms between David and the English barons before the battle of the Standard in 1138; but failing in this attempt he renounced his Scotch fief of Annandale, and, notwithstanding his affection for David, fought with zeal on the side of Stephen. He died in 1141, and left by Agnes, daughter of Fulk Pagnel of Carlton, two sons. The elder, Adam, succeeded to Skelton and his other English lands, which continued in the family till 1271, when, on the death of Peter Bruce, constable of Scarborough, without issue, they were parted between his four sisters. His second son, Robert de Bruce III, saved the Scotch fief of Annandale either by ioining David I, if a tradition that he was taken prisoner by his father at the battle of the Standard can be relied on, or by obtaining its snbsequent restoration from David or Malcolm IV.
[Aelred da Rievaux's Descriptio de bello apud standardum juxta Albertonam; Dugdale's Monasticon, i. 388-412, and ii. 147.]