Hands across the Border

The Border Region

Is that part of Britain which straddles the frontier (yes, I said frontier. It's more far more than a mere border) between Scotland and England. In geographical terms it is a hilly upland plateau bisected by river valleys, but that doesn't tell the full story, it also comprises some of the bleakest, most dangerous and yet beautiful terrain in Britain (if not Europe). While it provides good grazing, there isn't much arable land but what there is, is good. There are also mosses (impenetrable boggy areas which can be traversed with local knowledge) and wastes. A waste, in this context is an area of trackless hilly ground which contains absolutely no recognisable landmarks – if you aren't a local, you need a native guide – preferably one who has a compass, a map and the ability to use them.

The Marches

The frontier between Scotland and England was divided into six “administrative” (in quotation marks as that is the easiest way to describe it) districts called Marches, three in each country. From the west these were the Scottish West March, Middle March and East March. The English Marches were named in the same way. The inhabitants of these areas were, due to the oft-repeated invasions aimed at expanding the influence of the English monarchy, and the subsequent Scottish retaliatory raids into England, pretty much nomadic herdsmen. This was due to the scorched earth tactics favoured by the Scots and the English habit of living off the land (as long as its somebody else's). Due to these tactics the Borderers had little or no chance to raise crops.

The frontier was originally put in place by the Romans when they realised they had bitten off more than they could chew (or, more likely, had decided it would be cheaper to build a wall than keep fighting the Caledonians). However, by building the wall they inadvertently invented a technique which has since been used by all western empires (including the USA). Namely, they (in effect) drew a line on a map – only in this case the line was Hadrians Wall. What happened when they erected the wall was that they split tribal groups and families. The wall was built on territory belonging to the Selgovae in the west and the Votadini in the east, but there were Selgovae, Votadini and Brigantes on both sides of the wall. This may, at some level have some bearing on the origins of the Reivers.

Debatable Lands

A significant chunk of the Western Marches was known as “The Debatable Land”. This is pretty much common knowledge, but what was the reasoning behind this name? Was it because both countries claimed it? Or was it because neither country wanted it? This last suggestion calls to mind a sort of pass-the-parcel scenario:- (“It's yours, take it. Please.” ~~“ Oh no, we couldn't. It yours, please we insist.”). Charming idea, but wrong. The Debatable Land got it's name because neither Scotland or England could control the inhabitants, most of whom had only a passing acquaintance with any form of legality.

The Debatale Land (or lands, depending the source used) was an area of approximately 40 square miles which encompassed part of both the English and Scottish West Marches. Inhabited in the nominally Scottish side by Armstrongs, Elliots, Irvines, Beatties and Robsons . The English part of the Debatable Lands was mostly occupied by the Surnames of Graham, Hetherington, Storey, Scrope and Robson (yes, Robson, I KNOW, deal with it).

The Riding Families

This is a partial list of the main “Riding Names” on both sides. Some of them appear in both Scotland and England, where this is so, their primary loyalty was not to the country in which they presently lived (except when it was – temporarily of course), even if they had been born there, but to their name and kinship group. Alternate spellings given in brackets.

Scotland: Armstrong (Armstrang), Burn, Croser (Crozier, Crosar), Elliot (there are innumerable ways to spell this one, commonest are probably: Eliot, Elliot, Eliott), Hume (Home), Irvine, Johnstone, Kerr (Ker, Carr), Maxwell, Scott. And many others.

England: Charlton (Carleton), Fenwick, Hetherington, Musgrave, Robson, Storey. And many others.

Both: Bell, Graham (Graeme), Hall, Nixon (Nixoun), And many others – I've only listed the most famous (notorious?) of the Riding Families – there are a helluva lot more.

The various (and many) feuds and alliances between the Riding Families could support a good many doctoral theses, but its highly unlikely that any one person will manage to identify all the pertinent influences. So I'm not even going to try – I'm just going to outline a few of the better known ones and wait for the howls of disbelief....

The Kers of Ferniehurst and the Kerrs of Cessford, though sharing a Surname, were at feud with each other. The Kerrs – all of them – were at feud with the Scotts (all of them) in a dispute which had been started by an Elliot. Unusually, all Scots this time.

The Grahams, some of whom were Scottish and of whom weren't, were, in 1582 feuding with Irvines, Bells and Maxwells. However, a year later, they were allied with the Irvines against the Musgraves. The Armstrongs joined in against the Musgraves, while still in feud with the Robsons and the Taylors (who were allied with the Elliots against the Forsters who were allied with the Humes).

Looking at the supposed national allegiances in this dispute is quite educational:- Grahams (mainly English), allied with Irvines (Scottish) whom they had been killing the year before against the Musgraves (English) with the help of the Armstrongs (mainly Scottish) who were, at the same time conducting vendettas against the Robsons (mainly English), Taylors (English), Bells (English) and Johnstones (Scottish). Confused yet? That was just the obvious part of it – I haven't mentioned the marriage and family ties which existed within these feuding families. I'll just say that Musgraves, Armstrongs and Johnstones tended to marry each other, but all the surnames were at it.

The feud between the Maxwells (Scottish) and Johnstones (Scottish) was probably the virulent and bloodthirsty tribal war in British history. This feud culminated in the Battle of Dryfe Sands in 1593. In this battle approximately 2000 Maxwells (and allies) fought about 400 Johnstones. The Johnstones won the battle, while the Maxwells lost around 700. the battle is notable for being where Robert Johnstone of Raecleugh “bloodied his lance” - he had attained the advanced age of 11 at the time...

Unfortunately for the Johnstones, the Maxwells had the Kings warrant.

MacDonalds and Campbells? - Forget it.

Hatfields and McCoys? - Mere amateurs.

It's not actually that simple, anything could have kicked off a feud. A disagreement with a mother-in-law, somebody insulted your father, you lost a bet etc  and ad nauseum.Cattle theft was just business and a game.

Well the Borderers weren't Clans, although they displayed many similarities but the elimination of the competition isn't all that unusual. Admittedly they sometimes took it to extremes....

The Debatable Lands sound like my kind of place. I'd be with the Connons.