Robert is given by some Victorian historians as a son of Adam de Brus, by his spouse Emma de Ramsay. As Robert's first son, Adam, gave, witnessed by his second son Robert II, churches founded by an Adam de Bruis, in the fief of Brix, Normandy, to the abbey of Saint Saviour le Vicomte, on the death of their father; whose grant was later confirmed by a Peter, son of William the forester de Bruis, assumed the nephew, and younger brother of Robert I, respectively, through claiming Adam, 2nd Lord of Skelton, as their kinsman, and overlord.