Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1178)
GEOFFREY (d. 1178), abbot of Dunfermline, was nephew of Geoffrey (d. 1154) [q. v.], whom he succeeded as abbot in 1154 (Chron. S. Crucis Edinb.; Anglia Sacra, i. 161). He was the recipient of two bulls from Alexander III, the first undated, confirming the grant by Malcolm IV of the church of the Holy Trinity at Dunkeld to Dunfermline, the second dated June 1163, confirming all grants yet made or to be made to Dunfermline (Reg. Dunf. Bannatyne Club, p. 151). He appears as witness to several charters of Malcolm IV, of William the Lion, and of Bishops Arnold and Robert of St. Andrews. He was one of the ecclesiastics who at the convention of Falaise in 1175 conceded that ‘the English church may have that right in the church of Scotland which it ought to have by right;’ a cautious method of saying that the church of Scotland was and always had been independent of England. This would harmonise with Dempster's statement that he was a vigorous defender of the independence of the church of Scotland, and wrote ‘pro exemptione ecclesiæ Scoticæ’ (vii. 611). Geoffrey died in 1178 (Chron. Melrose).
[Hoveden, ii. 80; Gordon's Monasticon, p. 417.]