History of the Border. A few extracts from the book compiled by Richard Bell, warden clerk of the West Marches, at the start of the 17th century.
1500s: reiver damages
Richard Bell’s History of the Border has several pages dated 1586 and 1587, which list claims by people against others for damaged property and stolen livestock.
Given ‘they were all at it,’ and that a raid by one name would lead to retaliation by the victims, it’s a wonder the poor animals weren’t dizzy from being driven one way then another.
Given that, it also makes the whole situation seem at best futile.
The Armstrongs raid the Elliots and steal their cattle. The Elliots retaliate and steal the Armstrongs’ cattle – their own back, and more.
And on a truce day, both parties would put their case to the court, and perhaps end up with what they started with.
But even then, they’d both we worse off, because of the cost incurred of lives and burned villages. And the continual fear and uncertainty meant it was never worth building a ‘nice house,’ (unless you could afford to build a fortified stone property), and there was never any guarantee crops were worth planting…
The damage claims do seem to be somewhat exaggerated! Perhaps this was just in the hope of getting back what you’d really lost: like inflating an insurance claim because you know the assessors will try to pay a lot less than whatever you ask.
In one entry, James Maxwell, of P- , Lord of C-hill, and others, complained against Walter Graham, Davie Graham, Walter’s brother Will, Robb of the Fold, and Richie’s Will.
It was alleged they had burned land, and stolen 1,000 cows and oxen, 500 sheep, 200 horses and mares… the claim is for £3,000 Scots.
On the next page, the ‘friends of Adam of Carlisle’ have claims against Walter Graham of Netherbie, his brothers David and Willie, Richie’s Will, and Rob of the Fold.
They are alleging burning, with the theft of 3,000 cows and oxen, 4,000 sheep and goats, 500 horses and mares…
…affirmed to £40,000 Scotch.
It seems there were 12 Scottish pounds to one English pound.
So that’s £250 and £3,333. But those are still eye-watering amounts.
Something like £70,000 and £900,000 today.
Then again, 3,000 cattle etc is eye-watering, too.
The clans of all the Grahams
Richard Bell’s History of the Border includes:
1602. A note and abstract of the several names of the clans of all the Grahams severally given in to the Rt Hon Lord Thomas Scroope, preferred by them 8 Nov.
They bound themselves answerable to him.
Some 343 names follow. Many are listed at tenants of the various ‘good men’ (head) Grahams.
Some of the tenants are also Grahams, but many are not.
My count:
So, in 1602:
- 18 head Grahams had charge of
- 88 Grahams – a mix of sons etc, but also tenants
- 216 other names, most of them listed as tenants
Ok, that equals 322, not 342, but it was hard to count (and I was interrupted by someone at one point!).
The point being that, in the final year of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, there were 18 Grahams regarded by the warden of the march as being key figures.
And these 18 men could call on 325 men to support them. Of whom at least 88 shared the Graham name.
That’s just the adults, of course. It doesn’t say if these are all men who could ‘ride,’ or if it it includes elderly/infirm/useless at combat.
And it doesn’t give any idea how many children there were, bar the odd entry. Eg George Graham of Burnefoot ‘is lame and impotent, and he has the charge of a wife and 12 children.’
But when it comes to descendants, there’s the potential for hundreds of thousands to be around today.
The lists start with Walter Graham of Netherbie. Said to be the great-grandson of Lang Will.
He had eight children, including Richard – named by John Graham, Earl of Montrose, in an appeal to the English commissioners regarding ‘certain of my cousins’.
The petition: ‘a dangerous plotte’
1600, 19 Sept. Nine senior Grahams’ sent a ‘petition and complaint’ to the English warden Thomas Scroop.
These nine were: Walter Graham, John Graham, Will Graham of Moate, Richard Graham of Brackenhill, Willm Graham of Rosetrees, Alex Graham of Kirkandrews, David of Bankhead, William Graham Fold, and Hutchen Graham younger ‘with the ?rest of our friends’.
I’ve yet to ‘translate’ it yet, but it does include claims of ‘a dangerous plotte’
A week later, those they had accused replied to the ‘slanderous assertions’ against them.
‘ill week’
After Queen Elizabeth I died, on March 24, 1603, there was a free-for-all. It was assumed that with no monarch, the old laws didn’t apply (and there were no new ones). Plus it may have been that knowing the new king would unite the crowns, it may have felt like ‘this is the end of things as they were’. If you had scores to settle, now was the time.
The collection of the principal offenders that were put with their complices at the incursions, murders, burnings, mutilations and spoils committed publicly after the Queen’s majesty’s departure- And contained in the the bills of complaints exhibited to the Lord Bishop of Carlisle
There are 138 names in this list, of whom 35 were Grahams.
Which of course means 103 were not. But the fact roughly one quarter of those named were of one surname would surely have stood out at the time.
William Selbie his book
The like offenders contained in Sir Willam Selbie his book
Sir William Selby – who was one of the border commissioners – listed them by alphabetical order – christian names, that is, not surnames.
It’s not always clear if an entry without a surname is a ‘ditto’ to the man above, or not.
‘Sir William his book’ lists 121 names, of whom 22 are for sure Grahams. So roughly 19%, or one in five.
It’s not just shorter than the bills of complaint list, but both contain names not found in the other.
For instance, Will Graham of Rosetrees and Will Graham, brother to Hutchen appear in both lists. But Richie Graham the younger of Brackenhill isn’t in Selby’s list. And there’s no Sim Graham in the bills list.
J is for lots of Johns
The next list in Bell’s History of the Border is:
Mr Killinghall, his book of complaints
Under J, Mr Killinghall lists 46 names – 41 of those were called John (or variations). As a comparison, there were 11 Cs, 18 Gs, 28 As… and just a single B. And that was ‘a sonne of Brackhill’.
There were none for K or O. While U, V, X and Z, unsurprisingly, aren’t even there as headers.
The letter ‘i’ likewise isn’t a header: a capital I then was simply another way to write J.
All 19 Ts were Thomas/Tom. Of the 28 Ws, 23 were William/variants.
There were 38 Rs, of which 21 were Richard/Richie.
No wonder they narrowed it down (a bit) with things like ‘of the Fold’ or ‘sonne to Netherbie’. Or with sometimes convoluted ‘son ofs’ like ‘Geordie’s Johnie’; ‘brother to Simond’s Dick’; Will’s Jock’s Willie…
Or nicknames like Black Jock, Nimble Willie, All our Eames, and Flaughtaile. (William Graham, known as Flaughtaile, was executed in 1606, ‘a most infamous murderer’. He was at least given a trial first – not a given in terms of ‘pacification of the border’).
Mr Killinghall (whoever he was) lists 238 names, of which 61 are Grahams. Around 26 per cent.
History of the Borders – a list
The names in the Bills of Complaints by Richard Bell, warden clerk of the West Marches
Given his role as warden clerk, Richard Bell’s list should be the definitive one. But he only has nine Ts, to Killinghall’s 19 (Selby had five). What was/were Killinghall’s source(s)?
Richard Bell does have the longest list: 264 names in total. Of those, 61 were Grahams.
That’s about 23 per cent.
The king’s pardon
Whichever list has it right (if any does), the Grahams made up between 19%-26% of those accused of running riot during ‘ill week’.
The new king, James I/James VI, was to issue a free pardon to everyone accused of offences during ill week.
But those 61 Grahams had created ammunition for the king and others that was to bring down the whole name in the borders.