A True History Of several Honourable Families of the Right Honourable Name of Scot In the Shires of Roxburgh and Selkirk, and others adjacent. Gathered out of Ancient Chronicles, Histories, and Traditions of our Fathers. By Capt. Walter Scot, An old Souldier, and no Scholler, And one that can Write nane, But just the Letters of his Name |
 | 1. |
|
Now I leave the Familie, aud return again to brave Lord Walter,
and his Son Walter Earl in Scotland, where these worthy Lords were born.
|
| 2. |
|
 | A True History Of several Honourable Families of the Right Honourable Name of Scot |  |
Now I leave the Familie, aud return again to brave Lord Walter, and his Son Walter Earl in Scotland, where these worthy Lords were born.
Lord of Buckleuch into the Scots border
Was high Lord Warden, to keep them in good order;
On that border was the Armstrangs able men,
Somewhat unruly, and very ill to tame;
I would have none think that I call them Thieves;
For if I did, it would be arrant lies;
For all Frontiers, and Borders, I observe;
Where-ever they ly, are Free-booters,
And does the enemy much more harms,
Than five thousand marshal-men in arms;
The Free-booters venture both Life and Limb,
Good wife, and bairn, and every other thing;
He must do so, or else must starve and die;
For all his lively-hood comes of the Enemie:
His Substance, Being, and his House most tight,
Yet he may chance to loss all in a night;
Being driven to poverty, he must needs a Free-booter be,
Yet for vulgar Calumnies there is no remedie:
An ariant liar calls a Free-booter a Thief,
A free-booter may be many a mans relief:
A free-booter will offer no man wrong,
Nor will take none at any hand;
He spoils more Enemies now and then,
Than many hundreds of your marshal-men:
Near to a Border Frontier in time of War,
There ne're a man but he's a free-booter:
Where fainting fazard dare not show their face;
And calls their off-spring Thieves to their disgrace;
These are Serpents Spirits, and vulgar Slaves,
That slanders Worthies sleeping in their Graves.
But if fourty Countrey-men had such rascalls in bogs,
They'd make them run like feltered foals from dogs;
The Scot and Ker the mid Border did possess,
The Humes possest the East, and the Johnstons the West,
With their adjacent neighbours, put the English to more pains,
Nor half the North, and all three Louthians:
Yet with the Free-booters I have not done,
I must have another sling at him,
Because to all men it may appear,
The Free-booter he is a Volunteer;
In the Muster-rolls he has no desire to stay,
He lives by Purchase, he gets no Pay:
King Richard the second of England sent,
A great Army well arm'd into Scotland,
Through Cumberland they came by his Command,
And ordain'd to cross the River at Solway Sand.
In Scotland King Robert Stuart the first did reign,
Yet had no intelligence of their coming;
The Free-booters there they did conveen,
To the number of, four or five hundred Men:
In ambush these Volunteers lay down,
And waited whilst the Army came;
At a closs strait place, there they did stay,
Where they knew the English could not get by-way;
And when they came the ambush nigh,
They rose with clamours and shouting high:
Which terrified the English-men,
That they drown'd most part in Solway-Sand:
It's most clear, a Free-booter doth live in hazards train,
A Free-booters a Caveleer that ventures Life for Gain:
But since King James the sixt to England went,
There has been no cause of grief,
And he that hath transgressed since then,
Is no Free-booter, but a Thief.
Was high Lord Warden, to keep them in good order;
On that border was the Armstrangs able men,
Somewhat unruly, and very ill to tame;
I would have none think that I call them Thieves;
For if I did, it would be arrant lies;
For all Frontiers, and Borders, I observe;
Where-ever they ly, are Free-booters,
And does the enemy much more harms,
Than five thousand marshal-men in arms;
The Free-booters venture both Life and Limb,
Good wife, and bairn, and every other thing;
He must do so, or else must starve and die;
For all his lively-hood comes of the Enemie:
His Substance, Being, and his House most tight,
Yet he may chance to loss all in a night;
Being driven to poverty, he must needs a Free-booter be,
Yet for vulgar Calumnies there is no remedie:
An ariant liar calls a Free-booter a Thief,
A free-booter may be many a mans relief:
A free-booter will offer no man wrong,
Nor will take none at any hand;
7
Than many hundreds of your marshal-men:
Near to a Border Frontier in time of War,
There ne're a man but he's a free-booter:
Where fainting fazard dare not show their face;
And calls their off-spring Thieves to their disgrace;
These are Serpents Spirits, and vulgar Slaves,
That slanders Worthies sleeping in their Graves.
But if fourty Countrey-men had such rascalls in bogs,
They'd make them run like feltered foals from dogs;
The Scot and Ker the mid Border did possess,
The Humes possest the East, and the Johnstons the West,
With their adjacent neighbours, put the English to more pains,
Nor half the North, and all three Louthians:
Yet with the Free-booters I have not done,
I must have another sling at him,
Because to all men it may appear,
The Free-booter he is a Volunteer;
In the Muster-rolls he has no desire to stay,
He lives by Purchase, he gets no Pay:
King Richard the second of England sent,
A great Army well arm'd into Scotland,
Through Cumberland they came by his Command,
And ordain'd to cross the River at Solway Sand.
In Scotland King Robert Stuart the first did reign,
Yet had no intelligence of their coming;
The Free-booters there they did conveen,
To the number of, four or five hundred Men:
In ambush these Volunteers lay down,
And waited whilst the Army came;
At a closs strait place, there they did stay,
Where they knew the English could not get by-way;
8
They rose with clamours and shouting high:
Which terrified the English-men,
That they drown'd most part in Solway-Sand:
It's most clear, a Free-booter doth live in hazards train,
A Free-booters a Caveleer that ventures Life for Gain:
But since King James the sixt to England went,
There has been no cause of grief,
And he that hath transgressed since then,
Is no Free-booter, but a Thief.
In Queen Elizabeths reign she kept a strong Garison,
At Carlile, that Sink-port,
Of Horse and Foot, a thousand men compleat,
The Governour was the Lord Scroup,
It fell about the Martinmass, when Kine was in the prime,
Then Kinment Willy, and his Friends, they did to England run:
Oxen and Kine they brought a Prey out of Northumberland,
Five and fiftie in a drift, to Canninbie in Scotland:
The Owners pitifully cry'd out they were undone,
Then to the Governour they came, and seriously did complain:
The Lord Scroup heard their whole complaint,
And bade them go home again, and no more lament,
For before the Sun did rise or set,
He should be reveng'd on Kinment:
Anone he charged the Trumpeters, they should sound Booty-sadle,
Just at that time the Moon was in her prime,
He needed no Torch-light:
Lord Scroup he did to Scotland come,
Took Kinment the self same night:
If he had had but ten men more, that had been as stout as he,
Lord Scroup had not the Kinment tane with all his Company;
But Kinment being Prisoner, Lord Scroup he had him tane,
In Carlile Castle he him laid, in irons and fetters strong:
Then scornfully Lord Scroup did say,
In this Castle thou must ly,
Before thou goest away, thou must
Even take thy leave of me;
He mean'd that he should suffer death before he went away,
By the Cross of my Sword says Willy then,
I'le take my leave of thee,
Before e're I go away, whether I live or die;
These News came furth to bold Buckcleugh,
Lord Warden at that time,
How Lord Scroup Carlisles Governour
Had Kinment Willy tane;
Is it that way Buckcleugh did say,
Lord Scroup must understand,
That he has not only done me wrong,
But my Soveraign James of Scotland:
My Soveraign Lord King of Scotland
Thinks not his Cousin Queen,
Will offer to Invade his Land,
Without leave asked and given;
Thou stole into my Masters Land,
Which is within my Command,
And in a plundering hostile way,
I'le let thee understand;
Before Day-light came thou stole a man,
And like a Thief thou run away;
This Letter came to Lord Scroups hand,
Which from Buckcleugh was sent,
Charging him then to release Kinment,
Or else he should repent;
Scotland is not a fitting part,
I suppose England is the same;
But if thou carry a valiant heart, I'le fight thee in Holland;
There thou and I may both be free, which of us wins the day,
And be no cause of Mutiny, nor Invasions prey;
Our Princes rare will not compare for dignity and fame,
It nothing doth transgress their Laws what we do in Holland:
This Message by a Drummer sent,
To the Governour Lord Scroup,
A frivolous Answer he returned,
Which made bold Buckcleugh to doubt;
That he must into Carlisle ride,
And fetch the Kinment out,
The Armstrong was a hardy Name
Into their own Country;
But like Clim of the Cleugh and little John,
On England they did prey,
Kinments sirname was Armstrong,
He from Giltknocky sprang;
But Mengertoun he was the chief
Of the Name of Armstrong,
It was not for their own respects,
That Buckcleugh turned their Guardian;
It was for the honour of Scotland,
By reason he was Lord Warden;
He stormed that any should presume
To enter the Scots border,
Either Cornish, Irish, English, Welch,
Unless they had his Order;
If he had known when Lord Scroup did appear,
To enter the Scots-ground, he had call'd up his Rear;
But since he mist him in all Scotlands bounds,
In England he gave him sowre Pears for Plums.
At Carlile, that Sink-port,
Of Horse and Foot, a thousand men compleat,
The Governour was the Lord Scroup,
It fell about the Martinmass, when Kine was in the prime,
Then Kinment Willy, and his Friends, they did to England run:
Oxen and Kine they brought a Prey out of Northumberland,
Five and fiftie in a drift, to Canninbie in Scotland:
The Owners pitifully cry'd out they were undone,
Then to the Governour they came, and seriously did complain:
The Lord Scroup heard their whole complaint,
And bade them go home again, and no more lament,
For before the Sun did rise or set,
He should be reveng'd on Kinment:
Anone he charged the Trumpeters, they should sound Booty-sadle,
Just at that time the Moon was in her prime,
He needed no Torch-light:
Lord Scroup he did to Scotland come,
Took Kinment the self same night:
If he had had but ten men more, that had been as stout as he,
Lord Scroup had not the Kinment tane with all his Company;
But Kinment being Prisoner, Lord Scroup he had him tane,
In Carlile Castle he him laid, in irons and fetters strong:
Then scornfully Lord Scroup did say,
9
Before thou goest away, thou must
Even take thy leave of me;
He mean'd that he should suffer death before he went away,
By the Cross of my Sword says Willy then,
I'le take my leave of thee,
Before e're I go away, whether I live or die;
These News came furth to bold Buckcleugh,
Lord Warden at that time,
How Lord Scroup Carlisles Governour
Had Kinment Willy tane;
Is it that way Buckcleugh did say,
Lord Scroup must understand,
That he has not only done me wrong,
But my Soveraign James of Scotland:
My Soveraign Lord King of Scotland
Thinks not his Cousin Queen,
Will offer to Invade his Land,
Without leave asked and given;
Thou stole into my Masters Land,
Which is within my Command,
And in a plundering hostile way,
I'le let thee understand;
Before Day-light came thou stole a man,
And like a Thief thou run away;
This Letter came to Lord Scroups hand,
Which from Buckcleugh was sent,
Charging him then to release Kinment,
Or else he should repent;
Scotland is not a fitting part,
I suppose England is the same;
But if thou carry a valiant heart, I'le fight thee in Holland;
10
And be no cause of Mutiny, nor Invasions prey;
Our Princes rare will not compare for dignity and fame,
It nothing doth transgress their Laws what we do in Holland:
This Message by a Drummer sent,
To the Governour Lord Scroup,
A frivolous Answer he returned,
Which made bold Buckcleugh to doubt;
That he must into Carlisle ride,
And fetch the Kinment out,
The Armstrong was a hardy Name
Into their own Country;
But like Clim of the Cleugh and little John,
On England they did prey,
Kinments sirname was Armstrong,
He from Giltknocky sprang;
But Mengertoun he was the chief
Of the Name of Armstrong,
It was not for their own respects,
That Buckcleugh turned their Guardian;
It was for the honour of Scotland,
By reason he was Lord Warden;
He stormed that any should presume
To enter the Scots border,
Either Cornish, Irish, English, Welch,
Unless they had his Order;
If he had known when Lord Scroup did appear,
To enter the Scots-ground, he had call'd up his Rear;
But since he mist him in all Scotlands bounds,
In England he gave him sowre Pears for Plums.
| A True History Of several Honourable Families of the Right Honourable Name of Scot | |