He was the eldest son of John Melville the younger of Raith and Janet Bonar, his wife, probably a daughter of the laird of nearby Rossie.
He succeeded his grandfather, William Melville, as laird of Raith in 1502, and was knighted by James IV in the following year, probably on the occasion of that king's marriage in August to Princess Margaret Tudor.
[1] With James V (ruled 1528–1542), whose banner he followed in several of his expeditions to the Borders and elsewhere, Melville stood in considerable favour, and the king took a personal interest in the staunching of a blood-feud between him and his neighbour, Moultray of Seafield.
[1] The feuding became so bad that King James V was forced to intervene personally in 1533, arranging at Cupar for umpires to reach an amicable settlement between the warring factions.
This appears to have been a renewal of the sum granted four decades earlier to the son of the original victim to be spent upon a priest who would celebrate a mass "in a fitting place".
In 1529, Moultray, who remained staunchly Catholic, heard that Melville was on his way to Kirkcaldy to murder James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews.
He was a member of the juries who tried Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, and Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who were both executed for conspiring to bring about the death of the king, in 1537 and 1540 respectively.