Were your ancestors Border Reivers?

Three hundred years of border bloodshed and violence resulted in a society of resilient people, brave and resourceful, unique in history. Their meagre, largely unproductive farms barely supporting their families and they were frequently harassed by invading armies who at best required feeding but would often destroyed their crops, steal their livestock and unhesitatingly killed if they were resisted.

Having no other means of livelihood and were faced starvation or thieving. They chose thieving and so the reivers were born.

There were English reivers as well as Scottish and they did not only direct their activities to their enemy on the other side of the Border. They readily attacked the farms of their own countrymen especially those with whom they were at feud.

Reiving was not confined to the ordinary people. High officials were involved. Even the March Wardens whose job it was to try to preserve peace dabbled in reiving.

For generation these Border families raided across the Border. The intensity of the violence grew and a measure of its extent is that around a thousand defensive towers and bastles (fortified farmhouses) were erected in Northumberland alone.

Most have disappeared in the course of time but many are still there. Some have been restored and are open to the public and other are still lived in.

This state of affairs lasted three hundred years until the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when, eventually, the rule of law was restored.

You will find a list of border families on the Border Reivers website and details of many sites which can be visited.

Go to www.borderreivers.co.uk

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