THE BORDER REIVER Volume 11, Number 4

Voice of Clan Hall Society

December 2004

Origins - Border Reiver Riding Families Horsemanship and combat was such an integral part of the Border Reiver’s world that it lent its name— chivalry— to its ideological core.

Septs of Clan Hall Collingwood Crispin De Aula Fitz Williams Hal Hale Haile Haul Haule Haw Mac Hall

Around 700 BC, several thousand years after the Old People came, groups of horse-riding warriors were seen in the Tweed valley. They came from continental Europe and they spoke a language called PCeltic. Tall, fair-headed and vigorous, they brought a military technology based on the horse and chariot which must have given them an immediate and terrifying dominance over the

Inside this issue: President’s Desk

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King Arthur - Movie presents the Sarmar-

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Search for your Scottish Roots - “Reiver roots may not be Scottish at all”

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Clan Hall Society Offi-

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Editor’s Notes

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The peoples of the Border Reiver’s time, who had the deepest and most intimate relations with horses, were neither Celts nor Romans. They were, instead, descendants of the first horse riders.

ders, was the peace and tranquility shattered by the arrival of the Roman army. As of the political geography is understood, the Votadini tribe inhabited a swathe of country in the eastern Borders, from the Lothian plain down into Northumberland, while the hills to the west were occupied by the Selgovae. From the Roman [Trimontium] garrisons near Newstead, which are almost absent from the country east of Lauderdale, it is generally surmised that the Votadini were a peaceful tribe, whereas the lands of the warlike Selgovae had to be held at some Sarmatians in Roman Service 175 - 410AD strength. with draconarius banner

Under the Emperor Marcus river-folk they found in southern Aurelius (161-180AD), the RoScotland. man Army campaigned for eight Not until 79 AD, when Gnaeus years in the central and northJulius Agricola, the governor of ern parts of the Carpathian Britannia, marched his legions Basin, north and east of the (continued pg 3) over the Cheviot Hills into the Bor-

Teviotdale — Battle Harden / Romantic Reiver Country The romance of the Borders comes alive in the ruined abbeys and fortifications that punctuate the landscape, river vistas and splendid views from Sir Walter Scott’s “delectable mountains.” The countryside in the area where Tweed and Teviot rivers meet is some of the most varied in the Borders. To the east around Morebattle are high, bold hills and deep-cut valleys like those of the Bowmont and Kale Waters leading into the

heart of the Cheviot massif. As you go westward to the Teviot, the hills become lower and more gentle. Beyond the Teviot and to the north of the Tweed, the landscape is lower but rolling, with innumerable oval mounds, or ‘drumlins’, of boulder clay laid down under a massive ice sheet from the Ice Age. These drumlins, often a mile or more in length, are frequently topped by farmsteads and sometimes small villages such as Samailholm. They are separated by wetter hollows where even centuries of agricultural

improvement have not always succeeded in removing patches of marsh and rank sedges or small pools and lochans. The soil of the lower part of the Terviot valley forms good arable land in many places, but the moorland is never far away. A small rise in altitude soon brings you into the domain of the sturdy Blackface and the Cheviot. This low country is broken up by isolated higher, (continued pg 4)

THE BORDER REIVER President’s Desk As I begin this column, I note that the year has nearly ended, and has been quite a busy one for me. I want to take this time to wish each of you the best in

the upcoming holiday season. I have been a bit behind in getting things done due to illness. I had surgery again in late November to repair the sternum wires which have ruptured and left my sternum detached. Hopefully, this will be the last surgery I will need. I know how a turkey feels as I have been "carved" quite a bit this year. I have recently retired, and will be moving to North Carolina prior to Christmas. Judy and I had planned to move to North Carolina when we retired, and we will be moving a bit earlier than previously planned. We have children living in North Carolina at this time, so that will make the transition easy. I would like to request that each of you notify the Membership Secretary and Newsletter Editor of any changes of addresses, phones, etc., which will make it easy for us to contact you, and to ensure that you receive your newsletter and other correspondence.

President Atlas and Mrs. Judy E. Hall

It isn't too early to start making plans for our 2005 Annual General Business

Meeting, which will be held in conjunction with the Glasgow Highland Games, in Glasgow, Kentucky, on 3-5 June 2005. Please make reservations to attend this year. Your clan society will also be represented at a number of festivals during the coming year, and you are encouraged to attend. I will make this article brief, as I am in the process of relocating, and also preparing for the upcoming surgery. In the March 2005 issue of "The Border Reiver," I will provide you with information relative to the Glasgow Highland Games and our AGBM. You are encouraged to submit articles for inclusion in the newsletter which will make it entertaining and informative. I look forward to meeting all of you during the upcoming year.

Sincerely, Aye!

TàÄtá WA [tÄÄ Atlas D. Hall, FSA (Scot.) President

King Arthur — Movie Presents the Sarmatian Story A £70 MILLION Disney blockbuster portraying King Arthur as a Roman soldier is the true story — or as close as we will ever get. In King Arthur Clive Owen played Lucius Artorius Castus, a warrior from the Caspian Sea who allied himself with the Roman cause and was posted to Hadrian’s Wall in the second century AD. Disney marketed the Jerry Bruckheimer epic, released this last summer, as the definitive version of the Arthur legend, stripped of fantasy and based on historical research. Disney told the authority that its film depicted Arthur as Artorius, leader of a band of Sarmatians, warriors from eastern Europe who joined the Roman army after they were defeated by the Romans in battle. The film has Artorius and his warriors joining forces with the woad-wearing rebel Britons to battle the invading Saxons. There is historical evidence that Artorius was a military commander born in AD140 and posted to Northern England by the Roman Army. Disney argued that this was the figure on whom the King Arthur legends were based. The Sarmatians influenced the legends because they revered a sword stuck point downwards in the earth and ate at round tables. John Matthews, author of King Arthur: Dark Age Warrior And Mythic Hero, said: “Our Arthur Castus is a fictional character who we say is a half-Roman, half-British descendant of the original. The idea is that the story of the real Lucius is the seed from which later Arthurian legends grew.” The advertising authority noted that “scholars’ opinions were divided on whether Lucius Artorius Castus was the man on whom the figure of King Arthur was based.” But it considered that viewers would “understand that the film was a work of fiction and were likely to interpret the claim as differentiating between events that could have happened and myths.”

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1382280,00.html http://video.movies.go.com/kingarthur/mainsite.html

Volume 11, Number 4

Origins - Border Reiver Riding Families (con’t) Roman lines along the Danube Sarmatian Homeland River against the Quadi, a German tribe, and Sarmatians [’lizard people’ - clothed fully in scale armor], Iranian speaking barbarians who came from east of the Carpathians, from the south Russian steppe and from the Lower Danube Plains near the Black Sea. After hard but victorious battles, the Sarmatian tribe Lazyges’ king Zanticus agreed to hand over 8,000 horsemen as hostages, with 5,500 Sarmatian cavalry consisting of prisoners of war. They were posted to Britain in 175 AD. Marcus Aurelius sent these Not only did these men add to the sum warriors to Britannia, the first steppe of native horse and cavalry knowledge, nomads but also their terrifying standard gave us w i t h a peculiarly British name for a cavalry maybe trooper, a dragoon. The Draconarius 15,000 standard and colors have a curious resot o u g h nance in the Red Dragon of Wales. steppe w a r - Sarmatians were stationed in permanent h o r s e s , camps outside the Roman forts at Ribs ta l l i on s chester in Lancashire, Chester, at Haa n d drian's Wall and forward in the frontier m a r e s garrisons (i.e. Trimontium). The cavalry’s with colts at their side, to establish a job was to patrol the “no man’s land” in breeding pool at their destination to de- front of the wall north into southern Scotploy them along the empire’s frontier hot land. They were working in the lands of spot, Hadrian's Wall and beyond. The these independent Britons and doubtSarmatians were pressed into the Ro- less mixing with them socially as well as man army as auxiliary cavalry, and riding fighting alongside them, scouting for under their own banner of the flying signs of barbarian Pictish raiding parties dragon [draconarius] (see cover picture), and intercepting them before they beconsisting of a red silken windsock sewn sieged the wall. into the shape of a serpentine dragon which hissed when filled with air as its The Celts were already a society that bearer charged into battle. The Sarma- used the horse widely for warfare. The tians, with their women-warriors (Greeks Romans trained them and in southern called them Amazons), were nomadic Scotland showed how policing and warfighting horsemen riding fine quality fare could be carried out successfully on thoroughbred horses, capable of cover- horseback. The Sarmatians created miliing enormous distances either in pursuit tary stud farms to breed replacement or fight, riding horses that are swift and horses as needed. Their cavalry horses tractable. Sarmatians were swordsmen. were generally much smaller than those They used long slashing swords [28—51 we see today. The largest were about inches long] delivering blows at close fourteen hands and the smallest eleven. quarters from the saddle, literally cutting Riders’ legs would dangle lower than the people down. They also used bows and bellies of some these animals. arrows and a two-handed spear/lance After the withdrawal of the Roman army [9—14 feet long]. The armor garment of in 410 AD, the Sarmatians stayed and Sarmatian cavalry was the scale cuirass continued to live in their accustomed covered with iron and brass scales, and sites (Chester, Ribchester, etc.), raising later made from split horse hooves.

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new generations of cavalrymen, and passed their skills, knowledge and customs into the British mainstream. They were still called Sarmatians after 250 years. The semihistoric Arthur lived about 500 AD. He was very probably a descendant of those Sarmatian horsemen, a battle leader of the Romanized Celts and Britons against the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded Britain after the Roman army had withdrawn. Arthur and his military leaders trained the natives as armored horseman after Iranian patterns used against the attacks of Angles and Saxons fighting on foot, until their victory at Badon Hill.

The Border Scots have long been noted horse breeders. Such horses were ideal allpurpose mounts both for peace-time raiders and war-time light cavalry. Thus were the beginnings of very long traditions which were embraced by the Border Reiver riding families and persist in the present day annual Riding of the Marches— Common Riding festivals. Source acknowledgement: Arthur the Dragon King - The Barbaric Roots of British’s Greatest Legend, by Howard Reid, ISBN 0-7472-7557-2 Arthur and the Lost Kingdom, by Alistair Moffat, ISBN 0-297-64324-X The Sarmatians 600BC—AD450, Brzezinski & Mielczarek, ISBN 1-84176-485-X The Steel Bonnets, by George MacDonald Fraser, ISBN 0-00-272746-3 Web Sites: http://www.dragonbear.com/ arthur.html

THE BORDER REIVER Teviotdale — Battle Harden / Romantic Reiver Country (cont.) steeper hills produced by intrusions of volcanic lava among the sandstones. Capped by monuments or prehistoric hillforts — in the case of Penial Heugh, near Ancrum, by both— they form useful landmarks; the Minto hills, the craggy outcrops at Smailholm and Redpath Hill north of Bemersyde are examples. The western part of the area is dominated by the Eildon Hills, remnants of a mass of volcanic lava. The summit of the northernmost of the hills is ringed by concentric lines of ramparts defending a large Iron Age fort. This was probably the oppidum, or capital, of the warlike tribe known to the Romans as the Selgovae, who occupied the middle Tweed basin and Teviotdale at the time of the first Roman incursions [79 AD] into Scotland. The ramparts seem to have been deliberately slighted and dismantled, presumably to prevent any further trouble from the natives. The Romans built their own fort beside the Tweed at Newstead at the foot of the Eildons, trusting to the discipline of their legionnaires and the quality of their fortifications rather than to inaccessible site. As ...one an a result, surface traces of three areas along of their fortress have been completely obliterthe English/Scottish ated although its outborder occupied by lines have been recovered by excavations.

Teviotdale

the Halls.

Immediately below the Eildons the Tweed sweeps round in a broad loop. In the neck of this loop was Old Melrose, an early Christian monastic site that predated by many centuries the later and much more impressive Cistercain abbey two miles upstream at Melrose. Although no remains of this early religious community survive, an earthwork across the neck of

- The Steel Bonnets G. MacDonald Fraser

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heritage?) girl called Lilliard fought on the Scottish side at Ancrum Moor and was killed in the battle. The ridge on which the battle was fought is still known as Lilliard’s Edge. A stone near Dere Street is said to mark her grave. It once bore an inscri pti on , co mmemorating the maiden, which ended: “…...Upon the English loons She laid many thumps, And when her legs were cuttit off She fought upon her stumps.” the meander marks the boundary of the monastic precincts. The Romans’ main road through eastern Scotland, Dere Street, cuts straight across Teviotdale north of Jedburgh. Its line is followed by a series of minor roads and farm tracks and, close to St Boswells, part of the A68 highway. North of Ancrum, between the A68 and the line of Dere Street, is the site of the Battle of Ancrum Moor [1545], one of the less well-known Scottish victories. This fight was an episode in the notorious ‘Rough Wooing’ when Henry VIII used force to persuade the Scots to agree to a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and his son Edward. 3000 horsemen under Lord Eure, tired and laden with plunder, were ambushed by a hastily assembled force of borderers commanded by the Earl of Angus and Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch. Eure’s army contained a contingent of Scottish borderers who, out of a mixture of calculation and conviction, were fighting on the English side. As Eure’s riders fell back in dismay, his Scottish allies tore off their red crosses and turned on the Englishmen. The result was a rout. It is said that an Amazonian (Sarmatian

Historians will, of course, point out that the name ‘Lilliard’s Edge’ is recorded in documents before the date of the battle. The history of Teviotdale in the 15th and 16th centuries is dominated by the Scotts of Buccleuch, whose seat was at Branxholme, near Hawick. They were one of the most powerful families in the Borders. Wardens of the Scottish Middle March, as well as inveterate reivers and raiders, squabbled with their neighbors when they were not raiding across the border. Their most notable feud was with the Kerrs of Cessford and the Fernihurst, the most prominent family in the area east of the teviot. Local surnames [including Halls, Robsons, Burns, Youngs, Collingwoods, Pringles and others] and place names such as Kersmains and Kersknowe still testify to their former influence. The remains of the principal seat of the Kerrs, Cressford Castle, stands on a ridge above the hamlet of the same name near Morebattle. The ruins of a central tower and the foundations of outbuildings with a gatehouse can be seen enclosed within a strong earthwork and stone wall. It is

Volume 11, Number 4

Teviotdale — Battle Harden / Romantic Reiver Country (cont.) difficult to believe that in 1523 this was described by an English commentator as one of the strongest castles in Scotland. In that year, however, it was unsuccessfully besieged by the Earl of Surrey commanding a full army supported by siege artillery. It was finally taken and destroyed during the English invasion of 1544. Teviotdale was always vulnerable to raiding across the Cheviots from Redesdale and Tynedale, as well as to more systematic devastation in the time of war. Stories of the Border raids and reiving in this area profoundly influenced one of Scotland’s greatest writers. Sir Walter Scott, the “Author of Waverley,” is closely associated with this area. The tales about local people during reiving days of the ‘steel bonnets’ fired his imagination as did the near by remains of Smailholm Tower, perched grim and gaunt on its volcanic craigs and visible for miles around. Teviotdale provided him with the setting for The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), his first great epic poem, which established him as a literary figure before he turned to writing novels. It is not often read today; its chivalrous view of Border society in the 16th century is too idealized to ring true, while the supernatural element in the poem, which abounds with ghosts, goblins and warlocks, is unconvincing. Nevertheless, the descriptive passages relating to the Border landscape that Scott knew so well still come over as effective and powerful. The dangers of being too close to England can be appreciated in the area where Teviot and Tweed meet. A huge mound of glacial debris delays the junction of these two powerful streams. Around the mound are traces of defensive ditches. This was the site of Roxburgh Castle, one of the strongest medieval fortresses in the Borders. The castle was alternately in English and Scottish hands: it was while besieging it that James II was killed by the bursting of one of his own guns in 1460. Below the mound of Roxburgh Castle lies the site of the medieval town of Rox-

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burgh. Once one of Scotland’s most important burghs, situated at the first bridge over the Tweed above Berwick, it succumbed, like the castle, to successive English attacks. A suburb of the town developed at Springwood Park, south of the Teviot, and some of the 14th-century houses have recently been excavated. If you climb to the summit of the mound, you will find only a few stumps of walling; they are not the remains of the medieval castle but of a 16th-century fort built by forces of Protector Somerset. From the top, you can look across the river to the magnificent country mansion of Floor Castle. The original building was completed by William Adam in 1721. Floors were modified and extended in the 19th century and transformed from plain Georgian to ornate Gothic in style; its scale becomes almost palatial.

North of Tweed, near the entrance to Floors Castle, stands the site of the mercat cross of Wester Kelso, a burgh set up by the monks of Kelso in an enterprising effort to siphon off some of the trade of Roxburgh. Although cattle fairs continued to be held on this site into the 18th century, this burgh too has vanished. In this case, it may not have been invading English armies that were to blame. Possibly Wester Kelso was devastated by a fire in 1684. Today the center of gravity of Kelso has shifted further east to the area immediately around the ruined abbey. Badly damaged by English forces in the early 16th century and then used as a convenient stone quarry after the Reformation, just enough remains of the abbey to indicate how fine the original building must have been.

The largest of the Border burghs, Hawick, is located at the juncture of Slitrig Water and the River Teviot. The name derives from the Anglican settles of southeastern Scotland, “The Halls of who crossed the national border between Anglo- Teviotdale were Saxon England and Celtic witnesses to and Scotland in waves of migration during the 6th and 7th participated in the centuries AD. The Anglohistory of the reSaxon word wic means a settlement, and Hawick gion.” means “hedge settlement.”

- Editor

A church was founded here in 687AD, and the Motte Hill is thought to be the site of a feudal manor court. Excavations in 1912 revealed a number of objects in the ditch around the moat that dated to the 12th century. At the time King William the Lion granted Richard Lovel, the towns of Hawick and Branxholme, and perhaps the moat is what is left of this former lord’s castle. Hawick was also the scene of a shocking display of the “might makes right” mentality characteristic of the Middle Ages chivalry. William Douglas, known as the “Knight of Liddesdale,” had ambitions in the Borders area that were blocked by Alexander Ramsay, recently appointed sheriff (judge) of Teviotdale. Ramsay held his sheriff court in the parish church of Hawick on 20 June 1342. In the course of the proceedings, a band of Douglas’s men attacked and seized Teviotdale’s sheriff. Douglas carted the captive sheriff off to Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale. The prisoner did not live long in Douglas’s dungeons. But Douglas, whose fighting prowess made him too valuable an ally to King David II, was pardoned for the murder. Like many of the towns, abbeys and castles in the Borders, Hawick has suffered from intermittent warfare between Scots and English. The town was burned down by the English raiders early in the 14th century, and again in 1570, when a punitive expedition, commanded by the Earl of (continued page 7)

THE BORDER REIVER Searching for your Scottish Roots Reivers roots may not be Scottish at all No-one did more to blacken Scotland’s name than the 70 lawless clans of Borders "mafia" who specialized in murder, kidnapping and cattle-rustling for more than three centuries.

"So far, we have discovered that, although a moderate majority of the Reivers’ descendents most likely have British Celtic ancestors, their ancestry as a whole is quite diverse……”

Bloodshed and blackmail, the hallmarks of the Border Reivers, have always been blamed on their Celtic or Pictish ancestry, adding to the reputation of the Scots as a violent and intolerant people.

But that reputation could yet be scuppered by modern science, which is already indicating that Armstrongs, Douglases, Elliotts, Grahams, Rutherfords and other families who rendered the Borders ungovernable up to the end of James Elliott the 16th century, were not necessarily descended from Scotland’s earliest settlers. The first results from the Border Reiver DNA Project, set up by a computer software consultant from Boston, Massachusetts, shows the gangsters who perfected protection rackets long before Chicago was built may well have had their roots in ScandiThe Border Reiver navia, Eastern Europe or DNA Project has even North Africa.

already identified a number of Border riding families with the Sarmatians, Vikings and others …… Editor

James Elliott, the project administrator, has spent the last few months analyzing the results of 600 DNA profiles taken from males with Reiver surnames, including a direct descendant of Johnnie Armstrong, the most notorious bandit of them all.

It all started when Mr. Elliott, the grandson of Scots-Irish emigrants from Ulster, set out to solve the mystery of his own tribal identity. He explained: "Boston is one of the most Irish cities in America, yet I never felt Irish because I was neither Gaelic

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nor Catholic. And I couldn’t identify with the colonial founders of Boston, who were mostly English and had been there for centuries." His own DNA test placed him in the same general group as the Celts, along with 70 per cent of men in Europe. But his closest "relatives" seemed to come from very different places. Mr. Elliott’s nearest matches in a leading DNA database consisted of five Siberians, a Hungarian and an Icelander. Close matches in a German databank with 25,000 worldwide profiles were from Turkey, Syria, Ukraine and several other European locations. Then a further test indicated he was 11 per cent East Asian genetically. "I started the Border Reiver project with the Elliotts and expanded it steadily from there", he said. "I soon realized many of these families had a history of chaos and dislocation similar to my own. "They had been pushed back and forth between Scotland and England, then ejected to Ireland to serve as a buffer between the Irish and their English landlords, and finally to America. "Here, too, they became people of the borderland between European and native American, between patriot and loyalist and between Union and Confederate." The 600 profiles assembled by Mr. Elliott and his colleague David Strong currently represent 75 different families. But Mr. Elliott says a few are Borders families who co-existed with the Reivers and had observed them, policed them, or had been their victims. "There has been strong interest in the project both from the United States and also from people in the British Isles," he said. The analysis of the genetic composition of individual families, and of the Border Reivers as a whole, has followed similar methodology to the recent BBC program, “The Blood of the Vikings.” According to Mr. Elliott:, "So far we have discovered that, although a moderate majority of the Reivers’ descendents most likely have British Celtic ancestors, their ancestry as a whole is quite diverse. Many are clearly of Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian

origin. Others exhibit DNA profiles that may once have been North African or Middle Eastern or, like my own profile, bear an uncanny affinity with the people of eastern Europe or with the steppes of central Asia." The study also suggests that the large number of Roman troops stationed along Hadrian’s Wall may have left a strong impact on the genetic heritage of the people of the Borders.

Source Acknowledgement: By WILLIAM CHISHOLM

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm? id=993882004

NOTE: The border region between Scotland and England has been a melting pot since before The Middle Ages. It is a contention of the Elliott (And Border Reivers) DNA Project that many of these clans have multiple progenitors, possibly of quite different ancestry, and that many of them may also share some of the same ancestors. The Lowland Scots were a mixture of eight main groups - Picts, Gaelic Scotti, Brythonic Celts, Irish emigrants, Angles, Saxons, Norse and the descendants of the soldiers who manned the frontier forts of Roman Britain, that included the Sarmatians. Editor

Flowers of the Forest Ernest Edward Hall, b.Mar 26, 1909, passed away Nov 28 at the age of 95. His parents were Joseph and Minnie (Brittain) Hall, formerly of Darlington, in the county of Durham. Mr. Hall leaves his wife of 65 years, Charlotte, 5 children and their spouses, 12 grandchildren and 28 great grandchildren. “We as a family are saddened by his passing, but we celebrate the life that he lived. I know that he will be reunited with the family that has gone before him.” Maureen Hall, granddaughter Camrose, Alberta, Canada

Volume 11, Number 4

Teviotdale — Battle Harden / Romantic Reiver Country (cont.) Surrey, burned several Border towns and castles that had harbored fugitives from the failed Northern Rising against Queen Elizabeth. Hawick’s position as the centre of the surrounding farms of Teviotdale meant that whatever the ravages done by English raiders, the town would be rebuilt. When peace came with the Union of Crowns in 1603, a long period of stability culminated in the laying of foundations for the boom industry of knitwear in 1771. The importance of textile manufacturing to the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution placed a prosperous future before Hawick. Hawick today commemorates the violent former days of English-Scottish warfare each June in its Common Riding. The story that lies behind this annual event dates to 1514, following the Battle of Flodden,

when English raiders made frequent sorties into the Borders. Hawick’s “callants” surprised the English party and captured their banner. Today the riding is led by a cornet, who bears a replica of the banner. The countryside of Teviotdale is dotted with attractive villages. Many, like Ancrum, were local market centres in the 16th century and proudly display their scarred and battered mercat crosses. Some have fine parish kirks, such as the one at Bowden that was rebuilt in the 17th century to incorporate a laird’s loft with a burial vault below. At Linton near Morebattle, the church is first recorded in 1160. Although rebuilt several times since then, it still incorporates a Norman sculptured panel over the doorway. Traces of earlier Christian-

ity can also be found. The church at Ancrum has a hogback tombstone dating from Viking days. Others can be seen in the churches at Nisbet and Lempitlaw, east Kelso in what is undoubtly one of the most fascinating parts of the Borders to explore. [Next Issue: Liddesdale — Heart of Border Reiver Country] Source Acknowledgement: Discover Scotland, Vol 4 Part 45, Teviotdale, by Ian Whyte, pg. 1248—1260, 1986. The Borders 1, by Alan Spence, ISBN 085976-360-9. The Borders Book, Edited by Donald Omand, ISBN 1-874744-73-4. The Border [from a soldier’s point of view], by Brig.Gen. William Sitwell, 1927. Border Art [map], http:// www.dunmaps.demon.co.uk/ bordermap.html

Clan Hall Society Officers 2003 –2004 President

Secretary:

Kentucky Commissioner:

Atlas D. Hall Tel: (606) 889-9827 50 Burchett Trir. Ct. Prestonburg, KY 41653-1948 E-mail: [email protected]

Debbie Hall Tel: (330) 270-0387 5695 Cider Mill Crossing Youngstown, OH 44515 E-mail: [email protected]

Goshen Hall 988 Puncheon Road Kite, KY 41828 E-mail:

Executive Vice-President:

Treasurer:

Pennsylvania Commissioner:

Jay Hampton Tel: (708) 301-8331 14439 Bell Road Lockport, IL 60441 E-mail:

Henry R. Dorton Tel: (502) 737-7053 172 Timbercrest Drive Elizabethtown, KY 42701 E-mail: [email protected]

Ruth Ann Shaw 1597 Frey Road Felton, PA 17322-8016 E-mail: [email protected]

Vice-President—Eastern Region:

Membership Secretary:

California/Arizona Commissioner:

John A. "Skip” Hall Tel: (330) 270-0387 5695 Cider Mill Crossing Youngstown, OH 44515 E-mail: [email protected]

Sharon Hall Tel: (828) 652-1278 3429 Mentlink Way Nebo, NC 28761 E-mail: [email protected]

Jack H. Hall, Jr. Tel: (760) 949-6999 114460 Courtside St. Victorville, CA 92392 E-mail: [email protected]

Vice-President—Western Region:

North Carolina Commissioner:

David H. Hall Tel: (541) 855-9551 8917 John Day Drive Gold Hill, OR 97525-9612 E-mail: [email protected]

Jim & Sharon Hall Tel: (828) 652-1278 3429 Mentlink Way Nebo, NC 28761 E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

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Postage Stamp

The Border Reiver Voice of Clan Hall Society David H. Hall, FSA (Scot.), Editor 8917 John Day Drive Gold Hill, OR 97525-9612

Visit us on the Web at: http://tartans.com/clans/Hall/hall.html

Editor’s Notes As the holiday Season approaches Pam and I send you best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a great New Year.

David Hall, Editor

In this issue of TBR, the three featured articles are connected and are based on information I have been researching for most of the year. The Border Reiver DNA Project identifies potential connections between Sarmatians (Iranian origins) and Border ScotsIrish families. This is an intriguing basis for our heritage that we are intertwined with the early history of Britain during the Roman occupation, and how Celts influenced traditions and culture of the Border riding families. This 200 year-old connec-

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tion is even more interesting given the current events centered in the Middle East

the Border Reivers will be presented.

My recently processed DNA, with FamilyTreeDNA in the Border Reiver Project, for mtDNA and 37 Ychromosome DNA markers indicate I’m of the British / Celtic descendants, with 12—25 markers matching with Elliotts and Armstrongs in the database. Also, I have an 11 of 12 marker match with one of our members. I encourage members of Clan Hall Society to participate in the Border Reiver DNA Project, so we can benefit from this tool in researching our family roots.

Lastly, I am reading a fascinating book new book by James Webb, a Marine and former Secy. of the Navy under President Reagan, about the history of the Scots-Irish people/Clans who lived along the Scottish/English border and moved to the Appalachian Mts. He talks about their and why we have such great leaders and fighting men in America. Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,ISBN:07 6 7 9 -1 6 88 -3 . A vai l a b l e a t www.Amazon. COM for $17.13.

Teviotdale—Battle Harden / Romantic Reiver Country is the first of three articles that will be featured in future TBR issues. Overviews of the historical regions in the Borders, noted in The Steel Bonnets, by G. MacDonald Fraser, where Halls resided during the turbulent years of

Happy [Hogmanay] New Year !

[email protected]