Abbot of Fearn

The Abbey was founded by canons from Whithorn Priory in Galloway, with the patronage of Fearchar mac an t-Sagairt, mormaer/earl of Ross.

Until about 1238, the Abbey was located at Fearn ("next to Kincaard in Stracharrin"), near Edderton, but it was moved to the Tarbat parish in that year and known thereafter as "nova Furnia".

Despite the fact that the head of Whithorn Priory was a prior and Fearn an abbot, Fearn seems to have remained subordinate to Whithorn until at least the end of the 14th century, and even in 1440 Abbot Fionnlagh II was confirmed by the prior of Whithorn.The reason for this is that Whithorn was a cathedral priory; the nominal head of its community was the bishop, but its actual head was the prior, as was the common use in England at places like Durham and Carlisle, but this was not usual in Scotland.

Monastic life began to decline after the Bishop of Caithness, a Church official named John Sinclair, put Fearn in Commendam by use of a falsified ecclesiastical document in 1490 and removed Fearn's abbot, Thomas MacCulloch, O. Praem.

Several commendatory (and non-ecclesiastical) abbots ruled Fearn for several decades, but only for its financial benefits.