Border Reivers
Carlisle Cumbria England set in idyllic countryside
Border Reivers
Have you ever suspected your ancestors might have been a right load of villains? Well, you can have your worst fears confirmed at Tullie House in Carlisle. One of their set pieces is a stunning audio-visual display that tells the Reivers’ story.
Between the 14th and 17th centuries The Debatable Lands - the border between England and Scotland - was a turbulent place.
Inter-family warfare decimated the life of local people as they fought to uphold their property and possessions in an area devoid of laws. For more than 350 years the Border Reivers carried out bloodthirsty raids in which victims often lost everything, including their lives. Many were badly injured and one account did tell of a certain John Whyfield whose injuries were such that ‘his bowells came out, but are sewed up againe’
The stories of these raids are told in the Border ballads, the dialect folk poems which have been handed down over three centuries and which feature surnames which have given the region its unique character.
The Maxwells, Nixons, Elliots and Armstrongs are among the 77 known reiving families listed at Tullie House City Museum in Castle Street.
Reiving was mainly a seasonal event as there was a preference for marauding from Lammas-tide (1st August) until the reconvening of the official judicial courts three months later, which gave the Reivers a good chance of escaping detection during that period
The Reivers also wanted well-fed cattle that had benefited from a summer’s grazing, and firm dry ground underfoot to ensure fast journeys over the Border.
Of all the reiving families, the most feared and most dangerous were the Armstrongs, and one of the most infamous was William Armstrong of Kinmont, popularly known as Kinmont Willie.
He was a man who would not strike at single farms or villages but at whole areas, spreading terror, death and destruction and, unlike other Reivers, he liked to ride by day rather then under cover of darkness In 1593 he staged his biggest raid. He rode with an army of 1,000 men who stole 2,000 beasts and £300 worth of goods. Three years later he was captured and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle, only to be set free by his sons in a daring rescue.
The Reivers left a lasting testament to the English language as many a grieving widow was left ‘bereaved’.and families were ‘blackmailed’. (Rent payable to the landowner was referred to as ‘greenmail’ and so the protection money paid to the stronger Reiver families became known as ‘blackmail’.).
In 1990 Tullie House became involved in researching reiving surnames. Archive offices in the Border region, both English and Scottish, helped to compile a list of those families mentioned in documentary evidence, who were involved in reiving activities.
The list is displayed on the wall in the entrance to the reivers exhibit and now provides holders of those 77 surnames with the chance to discover their reiving ancestors.
If your name is on the list then your forebears could well be guilty of dark and dastardly deeds. Tullie House can put you in touch with a professional genealogist who can produce a fully researched document of one known and named ancestor.
Tullie House
Castle Street
Carlisle CA3 8TP
01228 534781
Carlisle Cumbria UK - Border Reivers