GENERAL ROBERT MELVILLE was descended from the Melvilles of Carnbee, in the county of Fife, in Scotland, a branch of the ancient and noble family of the same name, of which the chief is the Earl of Leven and Melville. The ancestor of the family is held to have been the first Norman who passed into Scotland. He was a person of distinction of Normandy, named De Malville or De Melville, who accompanied William the Conqueror into England, in the autumn of 1066.
Meeting, however, with some cause of disgust from William, he, before the close of that year, secretly withdrew to the court of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland. By Malcolm he was courteously received and early put in possession of lands, thence constituting the barony of Melville Castle in Mid-Lothian.
The General did sterling work in the West Indies and his story is a most interesting one.
