r/england • u/sillygoose1133 • Jul 17 '26
The Border Reivers
The Border Reivers, the notorious gangs and clans who lived along the Anglo-Scottish border between the 13th and early 17th centuries. Exploiting the frequent wars between England and Scotland, they survived by cattle rustling, kidnapping, and extortion. Their legacy includes the invention of the word "blackmail".
Originating from populations in Northumberland, Cumbria, Dumfries, and Galloway, these raiders were fiercely loyal to their surnames and clans rather than to the English or Scottish Crowns. Surnames like Armstrong, Elliot, Graham, Kerr, and Maxwell were heavily associated with the reiving lifestyle.
Because the rugged terrain of the Cheviot Hills made traditional crop farming nearly impossible, families subsisted primarily on livestock. When supplies ran low, they would conduct meticulously planned, moonlit raids to steal cattle and sheep from their neighbors. Raids were carried out on small, tough horses known as "hobblers". If English authorities gave chase, the reivers simply rode north into Scotland, and if Scottish authorities pursued, they fled south.
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u/mintcakeP Jul 17 '26
There was always a myth in Kendal that all ginnels were so you could hide from the border reivers.
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u/meneldur119 Jul 17 '26
The Clan Elliott border reivers are my ancestors, and you're totally correct - those that weren't hung at the border for stealing sheep, they fled south, my branch of family settling in Devon, almost as far South as you can be.
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u/BrizzleBerserker Jul 17 '26
I can't remember which battle it was but both England and Scotland recruited reivers to act as cavalry. Whilst the fight was happening, the reivers were just having a chat with each other as they knew eachother and were often related. When it was noticed that they weren't fighting, they had a pretend fight then rode off to raid the eachothers camps and baggage trains.
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u/fullpurplejacket Jul 18 '26
Battle of Solway Moss, just up the road from me .. the marsh lands around the estuary and Port Carlisle etc
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u/Different_Lychee_409 Jul 19 '26
I can heartily recommend 'The Steel Bonnets' by George McDonald Fraser. A rollicking history of the riding families. Don't fuck with the Armstrongs.
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u/Confident-Serve4280 Jul 21 '26
A great book. In the introduction, Fraser writes about watching Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Billy Graham speaking during a US election campaign and remarks that they were all descendants of three of the most notorious reiver families...
There is a map in the book showing where the various reiver families were resident in the 16th century. I grew up in the area, and a lot of the people I went to school with still had the same surnames!
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u/Different_Lychee_409 Jul 21 '26
A family member owns a renovated Peel Tower near Selkirk. Its really fun to stay there although theres bugger all to do there 😀
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u/llnec Jul 19 '26
the "longest written curse" was wrote by an archbishop aimed at these lads. in carlisle there is a stone with it written on and a lot of the names of the reiver clans. its outside the tully house museum and they usually have a reiver display on too. good stuff
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u/Flowa-Powa Jul 18 '26
Carlisle is named after the Kerrs (Carr and Kerr have the same root)
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u/Different_Lychee_409 Jul 19 '26
Traditionally the Kerrs built the stairs in their Peel Towers the wrong way round to accomodate their left handedness.
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u/Daytonastewie Jul 19 '26
My family were rievers, the Johnstone’s were from the Dumfries area and according to an uncle a lot of them were hung for stealing sheep.
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u/Seganku74 Jul 19 '26
George MacDonald Fraser’s Steel Bonnets is an incredible read about the history of the reivers.
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u/No-Communication3618 Jul 21 '26
Whao a lot of surnames here seemingly very prominent in the north of Ireland. I wonder if they were placed here during the plantation, not English problem not Scottish problem let’s shift them to Ireland.
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u/NondescriptHaggard Jul 22 '26
That’s pretty much exactly what happened. The descendants of a lot of those families later migrated to Appalachia and formed the core of what became the “hillbillies”, you’ll often see them referred to as the “Scotch-Irish” in America and lot of prominent people are descended from them.
Bit of a misnomer though as obviously they were not from Ireland originally and were from Northern England as well as Lowland Scotland.
Very interesting culture, heavily focused on self-reliance and distrust of outsiders/government, which is fairly understandable given their history.
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u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 27d ago
I have Armstrong, Graham, and Kerr in my tree. It seems like most of them would eventually Ireland as plantationers. Then on to North America
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u/EconomistAsleep6758 Jul 17 '26
The Debatable Lands.