Devorguilla Balliol
(Devorgilla Balliol)

c.1209 - 1290

Brought up in Galloway, she is best remembered as mother of John Balliol (1249 - 1313) and as the founder of Sweetheart Abbey. Devorguilla built the abbey in memory of her husband, whose heart she carried with her in life and was buried with her at Sweetheart Abbey. She also founded friaries at Dundee, Dumfries and Wigtown and endowed a school for the poor in Oxford, which later became Balliol College.

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