Robert was the Archdeacon of Totnes before 1184.[1] He was the second son of Gille, or Egidia, of Salisbury and he appeared as Robert fitzGille in at least one document of Bartholomew Iscanus.[2] His second brother was John of Salisbury. Robert and his younger brothers (John and Richard, who became a canon of Merton Priory) were close, and Robert even seems at some point to have bailed Richard out of trouble. Despite being a canon of Exeter, and therefore bound by clerical celibacy, Robert was married and had a son. He was also styled 'magister' and described as a physician: he left all his medical books to Plympton Priory, whither he retired sometime before his death in 1186.[3] [4]