Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Border Marches


	Border Marches
	Border Marches of England and Scotland
county:-	Cumbria (Cumberland)
county:-	Northumberland
locality type:-	area
country:-	Scotland
locality type:-	march area
SummaryText:-	An illdefined area of the border counties of England and Scotland, 16th century.

evidence:-	old text:- Camden 1789 (Gough Additions) item:- border service; beacons; nag tenements; foot tenements; border laws; march laws; murder; theft; arson; feud; hot trod; hue and cry; border raid; moss troopers; blood hound; Union of England and Scotland
source data:-	Book, Britannia, or A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by William Camden, 1586, translated from the 1607 Latin edition by Richard Gough, published London, 1789. goto source Page 197:- "..." ""The Border service against the Scots as distinct from the military service throughout the kingdom is as antient as the distribution of the several seignories and manors among the Norman adventurers by William the Conqueror, or his grantee Ranulph de Meschines. And the tenants of the several manors were obliged, on firing of beacons, or other warning, to attend their lord in the service of the borders at their own expence, which attendance might be prolonged to 40 days. According to the value of their respective tenures, some were obliged to serve on horseback, and others on foot, with the proper accoutrements. Hence there were nag tenements and foot tenements, the owners whereof were obliged to furnish their stipulated number respectively, on pain of forfeiting the estate to the lord. Within the manor of Bew castle they seem to have been all nag tenements; for in the reservation of a heriot there is a reservation for the riding horse kept by the tenant for the lord's service according to antient custom."" ""But the regulation of the borders by distinct laws under the rule of lords wardens of the marches seems to have commenced in the reign of Edward I. when he affected the sovereignty of Scotland. Hostilities then became inveterate. The Scots ill brooked a claim frivolous in itself, and supported the violence. Happy indeed had it been for both kingdoms if Edward, bad as his cause was, had finally prevailed. It would have spared much blood, treasure, misery, and desolation, which ensued, and, as experience has at length instructed, instead of two jealous, wrangling, contentious neighbours, distiguished by no natural boundary, would have made us many ages sooner one grreat, opulent, and flourishing kingdom."" ""The first lord warden of the marches of whom we have any authentic account was Robert de Clifford, lord of Westmoreland, and hereditary sheriff of the same, who was made the king's captain and keeper of the Marches in the north towards Scotland, 1296, being then about 23 years of age. The laws of the march or border laws 1246, given by bishop Nicolson, are an evident forgery. The power of the lord warden was varied as according to circumstances, but was in general very great. He was to punish all offences against the truces between England and Scotland, take cognizance of all hostile acts, hold warden courts and sessions in the West Marches, as well within liberties as without, levy fines for breaches of the truce, inquire after all who should practice with the enemey, hear, discuss, and determine all plaints, pleas, and debates, according to the law and custom of the parts of the Marches and dominions aforesaid, and at the cost of the subjects set and appoint watchmen to give notice against the incursions of the Scots, muster all fencible men between the age of 16 and 60 for the defence of Carlisle and Berwick, and agree to abstinences of war between both nations for weeks or months. He had under him two deputies, or substitutes, two warden serjeants, and other officers. His appointment was 600 marks per ann. for himself, and his two deputies, i.e. for them £.10. per ann. and the warden serjeants each 40s. per ann. He had a council, who were to enquire" goto source Page 199:- "into murders, maimings, fireraising, violent thefts, deadly feuds, cutting down trees, sowing corn in the opposite realm, depasturing cattle, hunting in the opposite realm, following stolen goods into the opposite realm, pursuit of hot trod with hound and horn, hue and cry, reception of fugitives, loiterers, safe conduct, observance of truce, fouling and swearing of bills, baughling and reproving, perjury, over-swearing, offender rescuing himself, retaliation, &c. These several articles of the border laws, together with the several terms of procedure in the courts, may be seen at large in the introduction to Dr. Burns's history of Westmoreland, c.2, 3. and the state of the borders from the reign of Edward I. to that of James I. c. 4-9. What kind of achievements were performed in this peculiar kind of warfare may be learnt from the account of a forray from July 2d to November 17, 1544, wherein 192 towns, towers, stedes, barnekyns, parish churches, bastel houses, were cast down or burned." "403 Scots slain. 816 prisoners taken. 10386 nolt or horned cattle taken. 12492 sheep. 1296 nags and geldings. 200 goats. 890 bolls of corn. Insight (i.e. household furniture) not reckoned." "In the next year's forray by the earl of Hertford between the 8th and 23d of September;" "Monasteries and friar houses burnt and destroyed 7 Castles, towers, and piles, 16 Market towns, 5 Villages, 243 Milns, 13 Hospitals, 3" "The order of the watches on the West marshes made by lord Wharton 6 Edward VI. in Burn, I. lxxxiv. will shew the different stations where such watches were disposed from October to March." "During the reign of Charles I. the borders were little attended to. Several acts of parliament passed after the Restoration for assessing the county of Cumberland and Northumberland, the former at not above £.200. the latter at not above £.500. a year for the safeguard of their inhabitants against the Moss troopers by the justices of the peace, who were to raise 30 men in Northumberland, and 12 in Cumberland, under a commander to apprehend such malefactors. The accession of James I. to the crown of England, and both kingdoms thus devolving on one sovereign, was an event fruitful of blessing to each nation. The borders, which for many ages had been almost a constant scene of rapine and desolation, enjoyed a quiet and order which they had never before known. The king, in pursuance of his favourite purpose of extinguishing all memory of past hostilities between his kingdoms, and, if possible, of the places that had been the principal scenes of their hostilities, prohibited the name of borders any longer to be used, substituting in its stead that of middle marches. He ordered all the places of strength in these parts to be demolished except the habitations of nobles and barons, and broke the garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle. Natural prejudices and a mutual resentment owing to a series of wars between the two kingdoms carried on for centuries still however subsisted. From the same source arose frequent disputes and feuds upon the marches, which, by the attention of the sovereign, were soon easily composed. But it required almost 100 years, though England and Scotland were governed all the time by a succession of the same princes, to wear off the jealousies and prepossessions of the formerly hostile nations, and to work such a change in their tempers and views as to admit of an incorporating and effectual union." "From the Union of 5 Anne hostilities have, by degrees, subsided; and as the then generation, which had been brought up in rapine and misrule, died away, their posterity, on both sides, have become humanized, the arts of peace and civil policy have been cultivated, and every man lives safe in his own possessions; felonies and other criminal offences are as seldom committed in these parts as in most other places of the united kingdoms; and their country, from having been the outskirt and litigated boundary of both kingdoms, is now become the centre of his Majesty's British dominions! Nevertheless the old wounds have left some scars behind. Much common and waste ground remains, which will require a length of time to cultivate and improve. The chuches near the Borders are many of them in a ruinous condition, and very meanly endowed. In many of the parishes there is not so much as an house for the incumbent to live in, and in some parishes no church. And some defects there are in the civil state, which nothing but the legislature can supply. Whilst the laws of the marche subsisted, criminal offences were speadily redressed by the power of the lords wardens or their deputies; and after the abolition of the laws of marche, the said offences were redressed by special commissioners appointed for the Borders, and matters of property of any considerable consequence were commonly determined at the court at York for the northern parts. The judges in their circuit came only once in the year, and sometimes much seldomer. They still come only once in the year to the bordering counties, which causes determinations of civil rights to be dilatory, and confines criminals (or perhaps innocent persons) in prison sometimes near 12 months before they can come to their trial."" "..." "Hot trod was a pursuit flagrante delicto, with red hand, as the Scots term it, by dogs called slough dogs, from their pursuing offenders called Moss troopers through the sloughs, mosses, and bogs, that were not passable but by those that were acquainted with the various and intricate byepaths and turnings. They were commonly named blood hounds, and were kept in use till within the memory of many of our forefathers. By a warrant 2 James I. it appears that nine of these dogs were provided and kept by the charge of the inhabitants of the different parishes. Burn, I. cxxx."

references:-	a miscellany
	MacDonald Fraser, George: 1971: Steel Bonnets, The: Collins Harvill (London):: ISBN 0 00 217261 5

includes:-	[English East March]

includes:-	English Middle March

includes:-	English West March

includes:-	[Scottish East March]

includes:-	Scottish Middle March

includes:-	Scottish West March

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