Link: Border Reivers

[Boongie Pam]

There has been some interest of late on the different boards that flank the England ~ Scotland border from the Solway to Berwick concerning Border Reivers.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,198941.0.html
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,149867.0.html


The "border reivers" is a term applied to the families of mainly farming stock that resided along this border, the debateable land, in the 14th - 16th centuries which was a time of violence, feuding, and treachery.

There are many links on the history of this time I've linked a few below...

The route of the historical trail:
http://www.reivers-guide.co.uk/borderreivers.htm

Significant places in the debateable land:
http://www.reivers.com/placet.htm

History and information including maps, photos and names:
http://www.nwlink.com/~scotlass/border.htm
http://www.sorbie.net/border_reivers.htm
http://www.borderreivers.co.uk/index.html

Comprehensive list of names:
http://www.borderreivers.co.uk/Border%20Families/Border%20Surnames.htm

And of course wiki...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Reivers

Names from my tree are listed on these sites but how to prove a connection is another matter.  Making the jump from a known relative say in 1750 to a family living and working the land in the 1300s without records is beyond my meagre skill and knowledge.  So I always hasten to warn caution in connecting to clan histories without understanding the basis of the written history.  Records at this time are very rare thanks to Edward 1 and Cromwell. 

Sasines started around 1599 but are incomplete until the mid 1600s.
Probate is available searchable on line at SP from 1514.

Any research pre-parochial records becomes a very specialist occupation, one which I hope we all get a chance to master 

Best of luck,
Pam
 

Please add any other information on your Reivers it's all of interest!

[Christopher]

The Boord o Ulster-Scotch (Ulster Scots Agency) website contains an article by Gordon Lucy about The Border Reivers . In the early 1600s King James banished many of the Reivers to Ireland. Many of their surnames are still found in large numbers throughout Ulster and Co. Fermanagh in particular.

Christopher