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SCHEME OF
HENRY VIII. FOR A MARRIAGE BETWEEN HIS SON AND THE INFANT QUEEN MARY OF
SCOTLAND – ITS FAILURE – MARY IS WEDDED TO THE DAUPHIN OF FRANCE – HENRY
MANIFESTS HIS RESENTMENT BY SENDING RAIDING PARTIES ACROSS THE BORDER –
DUMFRIES IS AGAIN PARTIALLY DESTROYED BY FIRE – WHARTON, THE ENGLISH
LEADER, TRIES TO FOMENT A QUARREL BETWEEN THE MAXWELLS AND JOHNSTONES –
DEFEAT OF ANOTHER INVADING FORCE AT ANCRUM MOOR – RETALIATORY FORAY INTO
CUMBERLAND – DUMFRIESSHIRE AGAIN ENTERED BY AN ENGLISH ARMY – CURIOUS
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF ITS ACHIEVEMENTS – THE COUNTY TOWN OCCUPIED –
KIRKCUDBRIGHT ATTACKED – IMMENSE SPOIL CARRIED OFF BY THE INVADERS IN THE
SHAPE OF SHEEP, CATTLE, AND HORSES – HOW THEY WON LOCHWOOD TOWER –
DESOLATE CONDITION OF NITHSDALE AND ANNANDALE – DEFEAT OF THE SCOTS AT
PINKIE – DUMFRIESSHIRE ONCE MORE UNDER THE ENGLISH RULE – LIST OF ITS
CHIEFS WHO SWORE FEALTY TO ENGLAND – A TRUCE BETWEEN THE KINGDOMS –
PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF THE DEBATABLE LAND.
THE
scheme of Henry VIII. for uniting the two kingdoms under the Prince of
Wales, by marrying him to the young Queen of Scots, fared no better than
his former attempt to effect a matrimonial alliance between his daughter
and James V. Beaton, and the Catholic party still in power, preferred
wedding Mary to a French prince rather than to the son of the
Pope-adjuring King of England. She was accordingly married, in Paris, on
the 14th of April, 1558, to the Dauphin, who soon afterwards
became King of France: but his early death left her a widow at the age of
eighteen; and, on the invitation of the Scottish Parliament, she returned
to her native country in the autumn of 1561. During Mary’s absence of
twelve years the Romish Church in Scotland had been completely overthrown,
the celebration of mass forbidden, under heavy penalties, the Protestant
Confession of Faith ratified, and the Presbyterian system of
ecclesiastical polity established by Parliament, though the Queen viewed
these proceedings with aversion, and had steadily refused to sanction
them.
Before
noticing the collision between the Reformers and the sovereign thus
provoked, we must glance at the way in which Dumfriesshire was affected by
the rejection of the English alliance. During the three years in which
Henry was cruelly operating upon Maxwell and the other captive lords, as
already related, he was trying to accomplish his ends in Scotland by other
agents and influences; and, whether he should gain or lose, he was
resolved, at all events, to make the inhabitants of the Border district
mourn with him that his matrimonial project had proved a failure.
On the 28th
of September, 1543, a council of war was held by his command at
Darlington, to consider what should be done “to Scotlande this wynter by
the Westmarchers of Englande.” Wharton, as a matter of course, took part
in the deliberations. The proposals made by him, and concurred in by three
other chiefs, Lowther, Leigh, and Aglionby, which are still extant,
illustrate strikingly the savagery of Border warfare. [State Papers, vol.
v., pp. 344-5.] The style in which they proposed to “annoy” their
neighbours of the north was thus explained by themselves after a devout
prelude, expressing their trust in God to assist them – which sounds
rather incongruously. They “trust,” in the first instance, to “burne,
distroye, and maik waist” all the land watered by the Annan and the Milk;
then to enter Eskdale, Ewisdale, Wauchopedale, and the Debatable Land,
sparing none of them; taking special note of the “towne of Anande, which
is the chief towne in all Anerdaill except Dumfreis [Occasionally, in very
old documents, the modern spelling of the town is anticipated, or nearly
so, as in this instance.], and all the townes, steids, beuldinges, and
corne” within the whole parishes of the same, and those of “Dronoke,
Reidkyrk, Gretnoo, Kyrkpatrik, Eglefleghan, Penersarkes, and Carudders;
and in Wawcopdaill, the perishing of Wacoppe; in Eskdaill, the parishinges
of Stablegorton and Watsyrkett; and in Ewsdaill the Over Parishing and the
Nether Parishing, with all the townes, steids, beuldinges, and corne,
within every of the said peryshings:” no one to receive immunity unless by
agreeing to serve the King’s Majesty of England. Detailed plans for the
devastation of the Middle Marches were also submitted; and though the
Darlington programme was not carried out to the letter, it was acted upon
in spirit.
The
winter that was to see an immense tract of Dumfriesshire and Selkirkshire
turned into a howling desert passed harmlessly away; and the wild-flowers
of the next spring were just beginning to decorate the waysides and fields
of Nithsdale, when Wharton’s armed host, passing northwards, trampled them
into nothingness, while hurrying on to treat human beings in the same way
with as little remorse. Encountering no opposition, they were encouraged
to advance further than was at first designed, and the people of Dumfries,
who had suffered much at Solway Moss, saw, to their dismay, the Southern
army approaching, as they were conscious of possessing no adequate means
of resistance or defence. The Burgh was entered and occupied by the
invaders, who seen once again to have had their own wild wasting way. No
more deadly visitation had Dumfries ever before experienced. They came for
the purpose of leaving tokens of their vengeful presence in the County
town, and obtained their wish – no one appearing with voice and look of
authority to bid the ravagers begone. Entire streets were burned or
demolished; and when the barbarous enemy disappeared, a large portion of
the Burgh looked (to use the expressive Eastern term) as if it had been
“sown with salt,” so desolate was its aspect. [Haynes, in whose work
Wharton’s reports of his expedition are embodied, pp. 43-51.] Bearing with
them all the valuable movables they could seize, and driving before them
many herds and flocks “lifted” from the fields around, the plunderers
withdrew to carry on their depredations in other parts of the County.
Wharton, as may have been inferred, was the chief agent in these ruthless
incursions; and that he might prosecute them with less molestation and
more fatal effect, he enlisted some of the lawless tribes of Eskdale and
Liddisdale, the Armstrongs, Beattisons or Beatties, Thomsoms, Littles, and
other “broken men,” under his brigand banner, giving them an unrestricted
commission to ravage and slay.
With the
same base ends in view, the English chief fomented a quarrel between the
Maxwells and Johnstones, who, had they co-operated in defending the
County, might have made him pay dearly for his visits. His perfidy in this
respect is depicted in a letter written by himself to the Earl of
Shrewsbury, on the 10th February, 1545, in which, after
mentioning that he had placed in Langholm Tower a considerable body of
foot and a troop of fifty horse, he says he had long used a follower of
Johnstone as an emissary to fan the flame of discord between the chief of
the Johnstones and Lord Maxwell’s son (Maxwell himself being a prisoner
with the English), and that a feud between them had broken out in
consequence, which the Scottish Council in vain tried to allay; that he
had offered Johnstone three hundred crowns for himself, one hundred for
his brother, the Abbot of Soulseat, and one hundred for his followers, on
condition of the Master of Maxwell being put into his power; that
Johnstone had entered into the plot, but, unfortunately, he and his
friends “were all so false” that the writer “knew not what to say” – was
not sure of trusting them; but he added, that he would be “glad to annoy
and entrap the Master of Maxwell, or the Laird of Johnstone, to the Kings
Magestie’s honour and his own poor honesty.” Yet the knight who could thus
coolly write himself down a knave, was about this time ennobled, under the
title of Lord Wharton, by his royal master, Henry of England! He could not
trust Johnstone; and we suppose the latter felt no remorse when, though
pocketing the proffered bride, he resolved to shew his antipathy towards
the Maxwells in some less dishonourable way, than by betraying the heir of
their house into the hands of the English.
While
Wharton was thus engaged in the Western Marches, Sir Ralph Evre and Sir
Brian Latoun emulated his destructiveness, if not his artifice, in the
Eastern Marches: for which service the former received, by deed of gift
from Henry, the rich counties of Merse and Teviotdale – the King
forgetting that he would thereby be sure to incense the Earl of Angus,
some of whose estates were included in the donation. Angus, since the
period of his disgrace, had, as already hinted, favoured Henry’s designs;
and his marriage with Margaret, that monarch’s sister, together with a sum
of money settled upon him by his royal brother-in-law, rendered him
additionally devoted to the English party in Scotland. When, however, the
proud old Earl- whose attainder had been removed soon after the death of
James V. – saw his patrimony ravaged, and then conferred upon an English
chief, his blood boiled within him; and his services having been accepted
by the Regent Arran, he rushed to arms, and, with five hundred men,
encountered and utterly routed the invaders on Ancrum Moor, though, they
numbered five to one. Pitscottie attributes the credit of this
extraordinary triumph to the Laird of Buccleuch, at whose suggestion the
small Scottish force withdrew into a hollow, making the enemy suppose that
they had taken flight. As was anticipated, the English advanced
tumultuously, eager to annihilate the fancied fugitives; but they,
“lighting on the ambush of the Scots all wearied and out of breath,” met
with a fierce reception, which soon issued in a disastrous repulse. The
Douglas party were favoured by having the sun and wind on their side – the
former darting its beams, and the latter blowing the cannons’ smoke in the
eyes of their opponents: “besides, the Scottish men’s spears were an ell
longer than the English” ones. The assailants’ first line was driven back
upon the second, the second upon the third, till inextricable confusion
was produced, and something like a parallel to the Solway Moss catastrophe
ensued, only that the slaughter of the defeated party was more extensive,
and the success of the victors more due to real valour, than on that
memorable occasion. Evre and Latoun, the two English leaders, with about
five hundred of their followers, including many gentlemen, were slain, and
the prisoners taken numbered one thousand; the Scots, as a small set-off
to these gains, losing only two men – killed by the recklessness of their
own artillery. [When Henry received news of this defeat, he accused Angus
of black ingratitude, and threatened him with his deepest resentment; to
with the Earl characteristically replied, “What!” said he, “is my
brother-in-law offended because, like a good Scotchman, I have avenged
upon Ralph Evre the defaced tombs of my ancestors? They were better men
than he, and I ought to have done no less; and will the King take my life
for that? Little knows King Henry the skirts of Kernetable: I can keep
myself there, against all his English host.” – Hume’s House of Douglas,
vol. ii., p. 123.] After the battle, “the Governor, calling for the Earl
of Angus, highly commended his valour, resolution, and wisdom; and thanked
Sir George Douglas, his brother, for his valiant service, assuring them
that that day’s service had cleared them of all aspersions of disloyalty,
and love to England, laid upon them by their enemies.” [Pitscottie, p.
186.]
In the
following year we find Johnstone and the Master of Maxwell friends once
more, and, in company with Gordon of Lochinvar, leading a successful
expedition across the Western Border; while, with the view of protecting
the Scottish side, its two principal fortresses, Carlaverock and
Lochmaben, were strengthened by the direction of the Government. But
neither the victory in Teviotdale, nor the retaliatory raids made by the
chiefs of Dumfriesshire, nor yet the increased attention pain to its
defences, served to keep the English in check; as, early in 1547, they
succeeded in overrunning a large portion of the County.
Sir
Thomas Carleton, of Carleton Hall, Cumberland, who commanded the invading
force under the orders of Lord Wharton (and with whose name, as Captain of
Carlaverock in 1545, the reader is already familiar), has left a
manuscript account of his predatory mission, from which we gather many
particulars of it, interesting in themselves, and richly illustrative of
the fighting times on the Border, and from which, therefore, we borrow
extensively in the following narrative.
Carleton
tells us that, in February, 1547, he made “a road into Teviotdale, and got
a great booty of goods.” Lacking proper shelter in the sore weather for
both men and horses, they pushed into Canonby; and after lying there “a
good space” proceeded to Dumfries – the lieges of which town submitted
themselves to him, and “became the king’s majesty’s subjects of England.”
“The morrow after coming to Dumfries,” he goes on to say, “I went into the
Moot-hale [Moat-hill, probably, on the north side of the town], and making
a proclamation in the King of England’s name, that all manner of men
should come in and make oath to the king’s majesty, every man at his
peril, they all came and swore; whereof I made a book [list of names], and
set it to the Lord Wharton. And so I continued about ten days: and so
making proclamation that whoso should come in and make oath and lay in
pledges to serve the king’s majesty of England, he should have our aid and
maintenance, and who would not, we should be on him with fire and sword,
many of the lairds of Nithsdale and Galloway came in and laid in pledges.”
“The town
of Kircobree,” to its credit be it mentioned, set the proclamation at
naught, so that Carleton was moved by Lord Wharton to give it “a preiffe
[proof, threat] to burn it.” “And so we rode thither one night, and coming
a little after sun-rising, they who saw us coming barred their gates and
kept their dikes: for the town is diked on both sides, with a gate to the
water-ward, and a gate in the over end of the fell-ward. There we lighted
on foot, and gave the town a sharp onset and assault, and slew [wounded]
one honest man in the town with an arrow, in so much that one wife came to
the ditch and called for one that would take her husband and save his
life. Anthon Armstrong, being ready, said, ‘Fetch him to me, and I’ll
warrant his life.’ The woman ran into the town and fetched her husband,
and brought him through the dike, and delivered him to the said Anthon,
who brought him into England and ransomed him.” The invaders, however, did
not get all their own way. M’Lellan, the tutor of Bombie, coming to
relieve the town, “impeached them with a company of men;” “and so,”
continues the English reiver, “we drew from the town, and gave Bombye the
onset; where was slain of our part Clement Taylor, of theirs three, and
divers taken, and the rest fled.”
Though
the outside defenders of “Kircobree” seem to have been scattered, its
assailants did not persevere with the siege. In retiring, they “seized
about 2000 sheep, 200 kye and oxen, and forty or fifty horses, mares, and
colts, and brought the same towards Dumfries.” Whilst thus employed, a
force of “Galloway folks, from beyond the water Dee,” came in sight, bent
on recovering the booty, and prepared to cross the interposing river at
Forehead Ford. “So,” says Carleton, “we left our sheep, and put our worst
horsemen before the nowte and nags, and sent thirty of the best horse to
preake at the Scots, if they should come over the water, and to abide with
the standard in their relief: which the Scots perceiving, stayed, and came
not over. So that we passed quietly that night to Dumfries, leaving the
goods in safety with a good watch.”
Next
morning a curious scene occurred. The party repaired to the place where
the plunder had been stored, a mile beyond Dumfries, in order to divide
it; “and some claimed this cow, and some that nagg,” while, “above all,
one man of the Laird of Empsfielde came amongst the goods, and would needs
take one cow, saying that he would be stopped by no man, insomuch that one
Thomas Taylor, called Tom-with-the-Bow, being charged with the keeping of
the goods, struck the said Scotsman on the head with his bow, so that the
blood ran down over his shoulders. Going to his master there, and crying
out, his master went with him to the Master Maxwell [afterwards Lord
Herries]. The Master Maxwell came, with a great rout after him, and
brought the man with the bloody head to me, saying, with an earnest
countenance, ‘Is this, think ye, well; both to take our goods, and thus to
shed our blood?’ I, considering the Master at that present to be two for
one, thought best to use him and the rest of the Scots with good words,
and gentle and fair speeches, for they were determined, even there, to
have given us an onset, and to have taken the goods from us, and to have
made that their quarrel. So that I persuaded him and the rest to stay
themselves; and for the man that hurt the other man, he should be
punished, to the example of all others to commit the like, giving him that
gave the stroke sharp words before them; and [commanding that] the goods
should all be stayed, and none dealt till the next morrow, and then every
man to come that had any claim, and, upon proof, that it should be
redressed: and thus willed every man quietly, for that time, to depart.”
It seems
to us marvellous in the extreme, that the Master of Maxwell, instead of
being cozened in this fashion by the pawkie Southern leader, did not at
once try to settle the question at issue between them by sword and spear.
The English influence must have been indeed overpoweringly great in the
district, to have made its chiefs and their retainers so spiritless and
submissive.
Carleton,
fearing that the Scots might be ashamed of their own apathy, and might try
to catch him at a disadvantage, made ready for war. On returning to
Dumfries, “about one of the clock in the afternoon,” he gave “every one of
the garrison secret warning to put on their jacks, and bridle and saddle
their horses,” and ordered them to join him immediately at the Bridgend.
They having obeyed his commands, he sent forty-two men for the goods, with
instructions to meet him at a ford a mile above the town – Martinton Ford,
probably. At that point the booty was conveyed across the river, and taken
forthwith to Lochmaben, where it was quietly divided that night. The party
then returned to Canonby, Carleton concluding this part of his narrative
by complacently remarking, “And thus with wiles we beguiled the Scots.” He
has evidently been a smart, clever, unscrupulous moss-trooping chief, not
overstocked with modesty, and prone to swagger in his speech. The way in
which he won Lochwood Tower is so graphically recorded by him that we must
give the history of the achievement in nearly his own words. The ruins of
this old castle, once the chief seat of the Johnstone family, are still to
be seen in the north end of the parish of Johnstone. It was built in the
fourteenth century, and from the thickness of its walls, its insulated
situation, surrounded by almost impassable marshes, it must have been
difficult to take by storm or siege.
Carleton,
before telling how he captured it by stratagem, says: “Considering Canonby
to be far from the enemy (for even at that time all Annerdale, Liddesdale,
and a great part both of Nidsdale and Galway, were willing to serve the
King’s Majesty of England, saving the Laird of Drumlanricke, who never
came in, nor submitted himself, and with him continued Alexander Carlel,
Laird of Bridekirk, and his son, the young laird), I thought it good to
practice some way we might get some hold or castle, where we might lie
near the enemy. . . . . Thus practicing, Sander Armstrong, son to Ill-Will
Armstrong, came to me and told me he had a man called John Lynton, who was
born in the head of Annerdale, near to the Loughwood (being the Laird
Johnstone’s chief house), and the said laird and his brother (being the
Abbot of Salside) were taken prisoners not long before, and were remaining
in England. It was a fair large tower, able to lodge all our company
safely, with a barnekin, hall, kitchen, and stables, all within the
barnekin, and was but kept with two or three fellows and as many wenches.”
Lynton’s
opinion was that the fortress might be captured; and with this end in view
the whole English troop set off, arriving in the vicinity of it an hour
before sunrise. Most of the men lurked outside the wall; while, according
to previous arrangement, about a dozen climbed over it, “stole close into
the house within the barnekin, and took the wenches, and kept them secure
in the house till day-light.” So far the plot had proved successful; and
now for its full development. “Two men and a wench” were in the tower,
and, at dawn, one of the former, rising in his shirt, went to the
tower-head, and seeing no one astir, he bade the woman who lay in the
tower to get up and open the tower door, and call up them that lay
beneath. “She so doing, and opening the iron door and a wooden door
without it, our men within the barnekin brake a little too soon to the
door; for the wench, perceiving them, leaped back into the tower, and had
gotten almost the wood door to, but we got hold of it, that she could not
get it close to. So the skirmish rose; and we over the barnedin, and broke
open the wood door, and she being troubled with the wood door, left the
iron one open: and so we entered and wan the Loghwood.” A most valuable
capture it proved, as the castle was well stocked with salted beef, malt,
butter, and cheese.
Leaving
Armstrong in charge, Carleton rode off to Carlisle, and reported his
success to Lord Wharton, who constituted him keeper of Lochwood. At his
lordship’s instance, he then proceeded to Moffat, and made a proclamation
there similar to the one issued at Dumfries; intimating also, that “whoso
did others wrong, either by theft, oppression, or otherwise, that he
should order it amongst them, and refer all weighty causes to his Lordship
and his council.” “So,” proceeds the writer, “I continued there for some
time, in the service of his majesty, as captain of that house, and
governor and steward of Annerdale, under the Lord Wharton. In which time
we rode daily and nightly upon the King’s majesty’s enemies; and amongst
others, soon after our coming and remaining there, I called certain of the
best horsed men of the garrison, declaring to them I had a purpose offered
by a Scotsman, which would be our guide, and that was to burn Lamington,
which we did wholly, took prisoners, and won much goods, both malt, sheep,
horse, and insight, and brought the same to me in the head of Annerdale,
and there distributed it, giving every man an oath to bring in all his
winnings of that journey; wherein, truly, the men offended so much their
own conscience, every man layning [concealing] things, which afterwards I
speired out, that, after that tiem, my conscience would never suffer me to
minister an oath for this, but that which should be speired or known to be
brought, and every man to have share accordingly.”
This
miniature Cæsar, the congenial chronicler of his own doughty deeds, closes
his record in the following terms: - “After that I made a road in by
Crawfurth Castle and the head of Clyde, where we seigèd a great vastil
[bastile] house of James Douglas; which they held till the men and cattle
were all devoured with smoke and fire: and so we returned to the
Loughwood, at which place we remained very quietly, and, in a manner, in
as civil order for hunting and pastime as if we had been at home in our
own houses. For every man within Annerdale, being within twelve or sixteen
miles of the Loughwood, would have resorted to me to seek reformation for
any injury committed or done within the said compass, which I omitted not,
but immediately after the plaint either rode myself, and took the party
complained of, or sent for him, and punished or redressed as the cause
deserved. And the country was then in good quietness: Annerdale, Nidsdale,
and a great part of Galloway, all to the Water of Dee, were come in and
entered pledges;” and “Kircobree,” vanquished at last, “came in and
entered pledges also.”
In the
summer of this year (1547) – a disastrous one to Dumfriesshire – Robert,
Lord Maxwell, son of the chief who was captured at Solway Moss, proceeded
to the Court of the Regent Arran at Edinburgh, to ask for aid against the
enemy. He stated that the fields of Nithsdale and Annandale were as so
many wildernesses; that the fortresses of the district were in the hands
of the English; that the cultivators of the soil, expelled from their
paternal roofs, had been reduced to beggary – all which miseries they
endured rather than renounce their allegiance; but that if no steps were
taken for their relief, they would be forced to swear fealty to the King
of England, and that others, fearing similar misfortunes, would be in
danger of doing the same.
The
Regent, moved by these representations, led a small force into
Dumfriesshire, and captured the Tower of Langholm, which the Armstrongs
had, three years before, treacherously taken when its owner, Lord Maxwell,
was a prisoner in England, and had delivered it to the Lord Dacre. Arran
was preparing to attack other garrisons, when he was under the necessity
of returning with his troops to join a French auxiliary force that had
landed in the Forth, for the purpose of besieging the Castle of St.
Andrews – then held by the conspirators who, in the preceding year,
assassinated the tyrannical Cardinal Beaton. Scarcely had the foreign
allies departed, after accomplishing their task, than the Duke of
Somerset, who had been appointed Protector on the death of Henry VIII,
entered Scotland by the Eastern Marches, at the head of fourteen thousand
soldiers, gave battle to the Scots under Arran, on the field of Pinkie,
and defeated them with great slaughter.
At the
same time, Lord Wharton appeared in Dumfriesshire with a powerful force,
and carried on the work of subjugation which his lieutenant, Sir Thomas
Carleton, had already half accomplished. The invaders set fire to the town
of Annan; but the inhabitants garrisoned the church, and from its tower,
which had been strongly fortified, proved “very noisome” to the enemy, who
took it with difficulty, and sixty-two of its brave defender, and then
blew it up with gunpowder. [Patten’s Account of the Expedition, p. 95.]
Castlemilk surrendered to theirs arms; but Lochmaben and Carlaverock
defied the assaults of the English, as they had frequently done before.
[Ayseu’s History, p. 321.]
The
successive raids made this year by the enemy, coupled with the disastrous
defeat at Pinkie, resulted in rendering the Shire all but completely
submissive; and it probably suffered as much as during any year since the
Southrons began to menace the independence of Scotland. A record has been
preserved of the chiefs of Dumfriesshire and East Galloway, with their
followers, who swore fealty to England at this dismal period. It is here
subjoined: - William Johnstone of Coites, with one hundred and sixty-two;
Johnstone of Lochmaben, with sixty-seven; Johnstone of Malinshaw,
sixty-five; Johnstone of Crackburns, sixty-four; the Johnstones of
Dryfesdale, forty-six; the Johnstones of Craigyland, thirty-seven; Gavin
Johnstone, with thirty-two; Jardine of Applegarth, two hundred and
forty-two; the Laird of Kirkmichael, two hundred and twenty-two; Patrick
Murray, two hundred and three; the Laird of Ross, one hundred and
sixty-five; the Laird of Amisfield, one hundred and sixty-three; the Laird
of Holmains, one hundred and sixty-two; the Laird of Wamphray, one hundred
and two; the Laird of Tinwald, one hundred and two; the Laird of
Dunwoodie, forty-four; Lord Carlyle, one hundred and one; Irving of
Coveshaw, one hundred and two; Jeffray Irving, ninety-three; the Irvings
of Pennersacs, forty; Irving of Robgill, thirty-four; Wat Irving, twenty;
the Lairds of Newby and Gretna, one hundred and twenty-two; the Bells of
Tintells, two hundred and twenty-two; the Bells of Toftints, one hundred
and forty-two; the Romes of Torduff, thirty-two; the Moffats, twenty-four;
the town of Annan, thirty-three. The chiefs of Nithsdale mentioned in the
catalogue were the Master of Maxwell, one thousand and more; Edward
Maxwell of Brackenside (afterwards of Hills), and the Vicar of
Carlaverock, three hundred and ten; Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, four hundred
and three; Grierson of Lag, two hundred and two; the Laird of Cowhill,
ninety-one; the Laird of Cransfield, twenty-seven; Edward Crichton, ten;
the town of Dumfries, two hundred and one. In Eskdale, the Beattisons and
Thomsons, one hundred and sixty-six; and in Eskdale and Liddisdale, the
Armstrongs, three hundred.
Another
list of a different kind, and extending over a longer period, probably, is
preserved in the “Talbot Papers.” It professes to give “the names of such
Scottish pledges and prisoners as were taken since the war began in these
West Marches; with an estimate of their values and estimations, and where
they were bestowed at the first:” it being explained that “nertheless
divers of them are dead, part exchanged and let home upon ransoms and
otherwise.” A few extracts are subjoined: - “Robert Maxwell, now Lord
Maxwell, an ancient baron, of great lands, himself remaining as yet in
Carlisle; the Laird Johnstone, a gentleman of 100 marks sterling or above,
for whom the King’s Majesty has paid 100 merks in part payment, for ransom
to his taker, and remains himself in Pontefract Castle; the Laird of
Cockpole, a gentleman of £100 lands sterling, or thereabouts, himself
remains with Sir William Ingleby; John Maxwell, the Lord’s brother, who
answers for all upon his brother’s lands, having at that time no lands,
and now, by marriage, fair lands, his pledge Hugh Maxwell, his nephew, for
one thousand men and more; the Abbot of Newabbey [Gilbert Brown] of 200
merks sterling in right of his house, his pledge Richard Brown and Robert
Brown, his cousins, for one hundred and forty-one men; the Laird of
Closeburn, £100 sterling, and more, his pledge Thomas Kirkpatrick, his
cousin, for four hundred and three men; the town of Dumfries, a fair
market town, pledge for it, Cuthbert Murray, worth little or nothing, for
two hundred and twenty-one men.”
If the
Duke of Somerset had followed up his victory at Pinkie, he might have
imperilled the independence of Scotland; but as pressing business,
involving his own influence at Court, recalled him to Loudon, the country,
which he had half subdued, gradually recovered its courage and freedom.
Dumfriesshire was nominally under English rule for a year or more after
the date of the battle. In 1548 and 1549, it was the theatre of several
conflicts, caused by the chiefs having risen up against Lord Wharton’s
authority. On the 24th of March in the following year, they,
and their countrymen generally, participated in the benefits of a treaty
entered into between France and England with Scotland, whereby hostilities
were brought to a close, and a welcome peace was secured, which continued
unbroken by the English for nearly ten years. Robert, Lord Maxwell, was
one of the Commissioners who formed this treaty, which was signed at
Norham in June, 1551. [Rymer’s Fœdera, p. 265.]
It
comprehended it its provisions the settlement of the famous Debatable
Land, which, as already explained, formed part of Scotland originally
[“The tract,” says Chalmers (vol. iii., p. 98.), “certainly belonged to
Scotland, as many charters of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries evince with full conviction.” He refers to Rymer, pp. 245, 289,
337, in corroboration of the statement.], but had, in the course of the
Border warfare, been often occupied by England, and had at length become a
sort of neutral territory, claimed by both kingdoms, really possessed by
neither, and ruled by laws of its own: that is to say, when these were not
set aside by the sword. In times of peace, the subjects of both countries
pastured their herds on its tilled fields during the day time, but were
required to remove them before sunset at their own peril; and when they
did foolishly run the risk of leaving their cattle exposed during the
night watches, the likelihood was that they would be carried off before
morning by Clym of the Cleugh, Hobbie Noble, or some other reiver of the
same stamp; and in that case no redress was obtainable by the owners.
The tract
lay along the Scottish side of the Esk and Liddel, was bounded on the west
by the Sark, and was eight miles long and four broad. After several
conferences between the commissioners of both nations, assisted by an
envoy from France, a division of the Debatable Land was resolved upon;
according to which, it was intersected by a line drawn from the Sark on
the west to the Esk on the east – the northern portion, or parish of
Canonby, being assigned to Scotland; the southern, or parish of
Kirkandrews, to England. By this arrangement, a tract of country that was
fruitful of violence and strife, but in other respects little better than
a waste, was brought under culture; and the little stone pillars put up to
form the line of partition, looked like the literal pale of civilization,
within which the territory and its turbulent population had at length been
brought. The treaty of Norham struck at one of the main sources of the
warfare that had desolated the Border districts from more than two hundred
and fifty years; and whilst its beneficial effects were felt by both
England and Scotland at large, it was more especially a boon to Cumberland
and Dumfriesshire, both of which had often reason to regret their
indissoluble connection with the Debatable Land. |
