According to both Anglo-Norman feudal laws and to ancient Gaelic customs, Dervorguilla was one of his heiresses, her two sisters Helen and Christina being older and therefore senior.

In 1263, her husband Sir John was required to make penance after a land dispute with Walter of Kirkham, Bishop of Durham.

Sir John's own finances were less substantial than those of his wife, however, and long after his death it fell to Dervorguilla to confirm the foundation, with the blessing of the same bishop as well as the university hierarchy.

In 1274–5 John de Folkesworth arraigned an assize of novel disseisin against Dervorguilla and others touching a tenement in Stibbington, Northamptonshire.

In 1280–1 Laurence Duket arraigned an assize of novel disseisin again Dervorguilla and others touching a hedge destroyed in Cotingham, Middlesex.

In her last years, the main line of the Royal House of Scotland was threatened by a lack of male heirs, and Dervorguilla, who died eight months before the young heiress Margaret, the Maid of Norway, might, if she had outlived her, have been one of the claimants to her throne.

She should not be confused with her father's sister,[10] Dervorguilla of Galloway, heiress of Whissendine,[11] who married Nicholas II de Stuteville.