Reivers

REIVER FAMILY NAMES

Hadrian's wall was built by the Romans close to this natural neck from the Solway Firth to Berwick. The Wall never kept the Scots in nor the English out (or vice versa.) It is a beautiful land, although bleak and difficult to access and is made up of salt marshes, peat bogs, broad rivers. There are also green wooded valleys and deserted beaches. The Cheviots were an obstacle for the invading armies. The Borderers, however, were familiar with the hills and twisting passes. Both sides of the border are divided into three Marches so there were six in all. Each was governed by a warden. Local interests of the Borders were not considered as much as the interests of the nations in relation to each other. The Marches were divided in 1249 - to be administered by a Warden. The Middle March seemed to get the brunt of everything. Liddesdale was the home of the most predatory clans. It had a warden of its own, known as the Keeper. From Liddesdale were mounted devastating raids into the English Middle March.
Berwick seems to have been basically the capital of the Borders. It was England's strongest fortress town on the eastern seaboard and an important seaport. Edward I, to eliminate rebellion in the area, attacked it swiftly on land and at sea. He put not only the garrison to the sword, but also the entire population. Rather than eliminating resistance, it caused resentment to fester and resistance to hold fast. Hermitage in Liddesdale was an impressive structure which at one time was owned by the Douglas and then the Bothwells. Carlisle, second to Berwick in political importance, was strongly fortified. It was the largest community in the marches and was a city that was under constant attack in the 16th century. Bishops at the time were fighting men and they even women helped defend the walls. The estimate of population in 1559 for the English borders was 117,000 and Scotland was placed at 45,000.
For almost 400 years, from the early 14th century to the middle of the 17th century, the Northumberland and Scottish families fought a seemingly endless series of raids and reprisals. The clans and families of the Borders were able to endure the struggle for survival due to their strength of character and their bonds of kinship. The history of the Border Reivers has many similarities to that of the American Wild West. Scattered groups of these dispossessed people found their way to Ireland and some further away to America. Others moved south into the Tyne valley where they were later employed by the industrial explosion in Northumberland and Durham during the 19th century.
The border was easily destabilised if Grains from opposite sides of the border were at feud. Sheep stealing and burning each others homes became part of everyday life. They were rugged, tough people who lived by their own laws and became known as the Border Reivers. Those living in places known as Liddesdale, Redesdale and Tynedale were the most affected as, for reasons of geography, the invaders regularly used these routes. Today their descendants can be found all over the World. Reiving was not confined to cross boundary targets. Indeed the borderers had a much closer allegiance to their family than to their country. There is probably no region other than the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands which can claim such a protracted period of constant violence and unrest. Most activity occurred from Lammas (1st August) to Candlemas (2nd February). Although feudalism existed, tribal loyalty was much more important and this is what distinguished the Borderers from other lowland Scots.
Many Reivers served as mercenaries, or were forced to serve in English armies in the Low Countries and in Ireland; such service was often handed down as a penalty in lieu of that of death upon their families. Reivers fighting as levied soldiers played important parts at the battles of Flodden Field and Solway Moss. When fighting as part of larger English or Scottish armies, borderers were difficult to control. They frequently plundered for their own benefit instead of obeying orders, and there were always questions about how loyal they were. At battles such as Ancrum Moor in Scotland in 1545, borderers changed sides in mid-battle, to curry favour with the likely victors.