The Hawick Tradition of 1514: the town's common, flag, and seal, etc

Front matter

THE TROUTLAWFORD: Hawick Burgesses on the Track of Reivers, 1546. THE Hawick Tradition OK 1514 THE TOWN'S COMMON, FLAG, AND SEAL. An enquiry into some of the more interesting and peculiar features of old Hawick history. BY E. S. CRAIG, Advocate, and ADAM LAING, Burgh Chamberlain. With Seven Illustrations by TOM SCOTT, A.R.S.A. ; a Title Page and Colour Sketches by JOHN WALLACE ; and a Map by JAS. P. ALISON, Architect. HAWICK : W. & J. KENNEDY. 1898. W. MORRISON AND CO., LTD., THE ADVERTISER PRINTING WORKS, BRIDGE STREET, HAWICK.

Preface

. In the present work the writers have endeavoured to place before the reader the result of an independent enquiry into the facts bearing on the time-hallowed tradition of 1514, and also on the possession of the Town's Common, and the ancient ceremony of the Riding of its Meiths and Marches. If these pages and illustrations help in any way to strengthen the ties which bind its many sons and daughters to the ancient Border town, the writers will have had sufficient re compense for their labour. They are deeply indebted to the artists, Mr Tom Scott, A.R.S.A., Mr John Wallace, and Mr James P. Alison, who have aided so much, and so ably, in the production. Mr Alison has spared no trouble in the preparation of the Plan of the Common — the work involving several perambulations of the old boundary, and minute checking of old plans.

PREFACE.

. VI The writers have to thank the Town Council for permission to make use of the Burgh Records. To the Marquis of Bute ; Mr Bates of Langley Castle ; Mr Gibson, Hexham ; Mr James Oliver, May field ; and Mr Robert Purdom, Town Clerk, their best thanks and acknowledgments are due for valuable in formation and assistance. The two views of the Common are from Mr James Barrie's " History of Hawick Golf Club," to whom the writers are indebted for kindly allowing same to be reproduced here. The reproductions of Drumlanrig's Seal and the entries in the Town Books are made from photographs by Mr J. E. D. Murray. The design on the cover is by Mr Alison; the shield being the arms of the Priory of Hexham, from a sculptured stone of the time of Prior Smithson, 1499 1524, which was formerly in the wall of the old White Horse Inn, Hexham, and now in the back wall of the building which stands on its site. Hawick, 10th February, 1898. CONTENTS. PAGE.

Chapter I

— FLODDEN— AND AFTER. The Battle of Flodden — Hawick and Flodden — Thomas, Lord Dacre, and the Dacre Raids — Surrey on the Borders — A "parsonne" of Hawick — A foray of 1532 — The Reivers and their times, - - - 1-17

Chapter II

—THE COMMON AND THE RIDING OF THE MARCHES. The Flag and the Common- Riding — Hawick and its Old Common — The Common existent before the " generous donor "—The feudal system — How the Commons fared — The enclosure and loss of the Commons — Extent of Hawick Common— Its division iu 1777— The Common in the wild days— The ceremony of the Common- Riding two hundred years ago — The nature of it — How it was regarded — The end — Its mimic continuance — The older ceremonies, .... 18-39 CHAPTE R III. —THE FLAG. The Old Flags still extant —Flag should be a Pennon— The Flag of 1707— The design or device of the Flag — The old, true colours — The Marquis of Bute on the Flag— The Flag not the Flag of Scotland, 40-58

Chapter IV

— THE TRADITION. Local scepticism — The tradition in its simplest dress — The Dacre Raids of 1513 and 1514 — Lord Dacre near Hawick in 1514 — The extreme probability of the story — Who CONTENTS. PAGE. carried the pennon ? — The Marquis of Bute on the tradition — How and by whom the original pennon may have been carried — The likelihood of the case, - 59-76

Chapter V

— THE SEAL. The Marquis of Bute's book — How the Hawick Arms there given are incorrect — The error in "Annals of Hawick" — The Seal of 1817— Its history, manufacture, &c, - - 77-84

Chapter VI

— RETROSPECTIVE. A brief glimpse of Hawick history from 1537, 85-93

Part II

— THE DACRE RAIDS AND ANNALS. The Raids op 1513 and 1514, 97-109 The Burning of Jedburgh and Siege op Fernieherst, 1523, 110-115 The Town Charter of 1537, and Confirming Clause of Queen Mary's Charter, 1545, ... - 116-129 The John Deans Tombstone, St. Mart's Churchyard, 129 Excerpts from Burgh Records, &.O., relating to the Common, the Flag, the Riding of the Marches, &c, arranged chronologically, 1640 to 1817, - - - 130-209 Memoranda, Statistics, &c. (with note of present-day Income from the Common), 210-211

Appendix

. Proof in the Action for Division of Hawick Common, 215 Boundaries of Common, 217-222 Proof for the Duke of Buccleuch, - - - 222-235 Proof for the Town of Hawick, ... - 236-255 Titles of Claimants, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. The Troutlawford : Hawick Burgesses on the Track of Reivers, 1546 — see p. 30— (Tom Scott, A.R.S.A.), - - Frontispiece. 2. Title Page : The Captured Pennon (John Wallace). 3. The Burnford : Driving the Burgesses' Kye to the Common (Tom Scott), - Facing page 26 4. The Auld Ca-Knowe : Calling the Burgess Roll (Tom Scott), ... ,_ 34 5. Hawiok Moat : Sunrise (Tom Scott), - ,, 38 6. Hawick Common - Riding Flags (John Wallace), ,, 42 7. Facsimile of Entry in Council Records, 1707, - Page 49 8. Hawick Common— looking North (Tom Scott), Facing page 84 9. Hawick Common — looking South (Tom Scott), ,, 92 10.

Drumlanrig's Seal (John Wallace), - Tailpiece, page 124 11. The John Deans Tombstone, St. Mary's Churchyard (Jas. P. Alison), - - Facing page 128 12. Facsimile of Entry in Council Records, 1703, .--.--- Page 147 13. Seal of Burgh, ,,207 14. Trophy of Burgh Seal, Flag, &c. (Tom Scott), ----.-- Inside of cover. 15. Plan of Hawick Common (Jas. P. Alison), End. Grey traditions gather round Church and tower and town ; Passive in the Druid mound, Centuries look down. Still the hum of busy life Rises from her streets, Still in fond, unending strife, Teviot, Slitrig mf.ets. R. S. C. THE Town's Common1 -> Flag and Seal. Ns>/3lI**rW THE HAWICK TRADITION OF 1514: THE TOWN'S COMMON, FLAG, AND SEAL.

Chapter I

FLODDEN— AND AFTER. " Oh I hear the tread o' the fighting men, I see the sun on splent and spear, I mark the arrow outen the fern That flies so low and sings so clear ! Advance my standards to that war, And bid my good knights prick and ride ; The gled shall watch as fierce a fight As e'er was fought on the Border side." Rudyard Kipling. "l^AOUBTLESS there are many parallels on the l^y blood-stained page of history to the defeat of Flodden : but scarcely another battle that has left so deep a mark on the defeated people. Flodden witnessed the passing of Chivalry : the death of a Scottish King : and the utter prostration for a time B of the Scottish nation. The death roll on both sides was tremendous. In this fight alone there perished, we are told, a King, an Archbishop, four abbots, twelve earls, seventeen lords, four hundred knights, and seventeen thousand men.

On Scotland, with its slender population of probably not more, all told, than three quarters of a million, the blow fell with disastrous consequences. Of the entire army that had assembled at the summons of James the Fourth, probably not less than one-fourth fell on the field. Scarcely a family in Scotland but lost a representative. In the words of an old English chronicle, " Thir is no grete man of Scotland returned home but the Chamberlain. It is thought that fewe of them be left on lyve." * The Chamberlain was the Earl of Home. It was a stubborn, well-contested fight. The Scots fought under heavy disadvantage from the presence of their King. Gallant as he was, the stake was too high. His death broke their ranks and victory became impossible. Even so, however, night fell on an undecided battle.

Home, who brought what gleam of victory there was, stood all night with his Borderers on the field.-f- But the morrow revealed not only * State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. iv. p. 2. t Lindsay of Pitscottie. the complete defeat of the Scottish forces but a carnage so dreadful that for many years henceforth Lowland Scotland lay almost at the mercy of England. Of the bravery of the Scots we have striking testimony from the victors themselves. In an old Black Letter book printed not long after the event it is stated that, " It is not to be doubted but the Scottes fought manly and were determined outher to wynne ye Felde or to dye. They were also as well apoynted as was possyble at all poyntes with armoure and harneys so that fewe of them were slayne with arrowes: Howbeit the bylles dyd bete and hewe them downe woth some payne and daunger to Englyshemen.

The said Scottes were so playnely determined to abide batayle and not to flee that they put from them theyr horses and also put of theyr botes and shoes and faught in the vampis of their hooses, every man for the moost part with a kene and shape spear of five yerdes long and a target afore hym. And when theyr speres fayled and were a' spent then they faught with grete and sharpe swerdes makyng lytell or no noys." * How effectively do these last words call up the silent scene of stubborn conflict ! * The Battle of Flodden Field. Reprinted, Newcastle, 1822. To this fatal field of Flodden the town of Hawick, like other Border towns, had sent its quota of men. It was even then a large town according to the times, built on a beautiful site by the junction of the livers Teviot and Slitrig — with its towers or bastel-houses, its ports and port walls, its grand old Church of St Mary (how beautiful, the carved old stones still testify), its baronial Tower and its thatched cottages.

Most of the able-bodied men had gathered at the summons of their Over Lord, Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig, Baron of the Barony of Hawick. Leader and men fell on the field. Tradition is not likely to err : and the mark of Flodden is on the town to this day. The thrill of anguish and of lamentation that ran through town and hamlet stricken with so terrible a blow is still felt in the legends, traditions, and song snatches of the people. Not only among the great where " Many a Scottish lady gay Sate weeping in her bower," but in innumerable cottages throughout the length and breadth of the Scottish Borders there was desolation and despair. The memory of the fight continues vivid to our own day, gilding the harsh reality with the glow of poetry and pathos. " I've heard them lilting at the ewe-milking, Lassies a' lilting before dawn o' day, But now they are moanin' on ilka green loanin', The flowers o' the forest are a' wede away."

The people would not believe that their King was slain though Lord Dacre found the body and it had been " brought to Berwick." They pictured him as a pilgrim to the Holy Land. And even his Queen who had married the Earl of Angus and later on obtained a divorce from him, pled as ground for it " that she was maried to the said Erie, the late King of Scottes, her husbande, being alive, and that the same King was living three yeres after the feilde of Flodden or Brankeston." * Yet slain he was "a spear's length from the Earl of Surrey," and Thomas, Lord Dacre, with whom we in Hawick had once something note worthy to do, said that the reason the Scots held him in such detestation was that he had found the body. "Albeit," he writes plaintively, "they love me worst of any Englishman living be reason that I sand the bodye of the King of Scots."

More cogent reasons will, however, be found on these pages and elsewhere. No other Scottish defeat had the magnitude of Flodden. Its name was written in fire on the Border- * State Papers, iv. p. 385. land of Scotland. The Borderers were brave men, accustomed to looking in the face death and the chances of battle. Fight and defeat were the ordinary hazards of their life. But Flodden cast a gloom that never lifted. The immediate result of the disaster was a harrying and laying waste of the Borders. The close of the year 1513, and the year 1514, witnessed a succession of most destructive raids on the part of the English directed against the valleys of Jed, Teviot, Liddel, and Annan. It is with one of these raids in particular — one conducted by Lord Dacre himself in 1514 — that we in Hawick have most concern.

But we shall not now discuss it. It falls more fitly into place when we come to deal with our old Hawick tradition which throws its light upon it. The conduct of this enterprise against the Borderers fell in the first place upon Lord Darcy and Thomas, Lord Dacre, who, in 1512, had been created Warden of the Marches. At a later date the chief command was given to the Earl of Surrey, son of the famous old Earl who led the English at Flodden, and who (created Duke of Norfolk in honour of his victory) had died in 1514. All of them were tried soldiers. Dacre was perhaps the strongest Warden that the Marches of England ever knew to hold the turbulent Borderers in order. He belonged to an illustrious Cumberland family and his chief seat was at Gilsland, but at this time, and for many years, he had as much or more concern with the neighbouring county of Northumberland.

In particular his interest lay among the men of Norham and Hexham, &c. — " men of Tynedale and Redesdale " — men under the sway of the See of Durham and the Archbishop of York. In 1514, his brother, Sir Philip, was Captain of Norham Castle. And the Englishmen who took the greatest part in the raiding in the Hawick district were men drawn from the regions named. For the rest, and until we treat of these raids more fully, we may add that Lord Dacre was one of the fiercest as also one of the ablest of the English leaders and that his raids were conducted with a cruelty heretofore unknown in Border warfare. They were inflicted on a people already defenceless, whose strength had almost been exhausted in the one supreme effort of Flodden. Dacre carried fire and sword through this district : he reduced it to desolation and famine : he left it a wilderness.

In the words of Thomas, Lord Dacre himself, in a letter to His Majesty's Council ofthe year 1514: "There was never so mekill myschefe, robbry, spoiling, and vengence in Scotland than there is nowe, without hope of remedye ; which I pray our Lord Gode to continewe." Even in such misery the raids were bravely met. The fierce Dacre war cry, "A Daker, a Daker, a read Bull, a read Bull," was answered often by slogans as fierce. At many points in their march the Englishmen encountered a stubborn resistance. In particular, as we shall learn later, this war cry met one slogan that in the event proved more than a match for it — as in centive to victory : and the shout of " Daker " has consequently never been heard in the streets of the old Burgh of Hawick. In Scotland generally, events after Flodden resolved themselves into a struggle between the Queen (Margaret, sister of Henry VIII.), who was thought to represent the English interest, and the Duke of Albany who represented that of France.

The struggle was complicated later by the alienation of the Queen from the Earl of Angus and by the advent of the young King himself into active politics. On the Borders they may not have liked the Queen, but they hated Albany. In 1524, the Queen wrote to her Eoyal brother of England : "Alsua I compleyne to ye Kingis grace my Bruder, of my Lord Dakyrse yat doyse and says to my hurt : for he sais to Scottis folk yat he mervals that they will lat ony worn ane has attoritie and speciale of me : quhilk words suld ever come of oders, no of Inglys menne." * If that was Dacre's way of speaking it was not half so blunt a way as the Borderers had. Albany came south with an army, and the Borderers, who had long thirsted for revenge and a good return blow against England, urged him to invade that country.

But he declined and made haste north again. Whereupon the " gentilmen of the Merche and Tevidale " cried out, " By Godes blood we woll never serve you more, nor never woll wear your bagis (badges) again," and tore the badges off. " Wold to God," they said, " we were all sworne Englishe." -f- It was wearing work dealing with the Borders. Even raids were difficult in these days, "there was noe horsemete " to be had. It is little wonder. As Lawson wrote to Cromwell in another instance, " The Scottes be so subtile, that often they shifte ther power and removes ther garrysons." J The Earl of Surrey felt it almost too much for him. In 1523, he wrote to Cardinal Wolsey, " as Sir Nicholas Carewe, Sir Fraunces Brian, and thoder gentilmen here can say, * State Papers, vol. iv. p. 118. J Ibid. p. 688. t Ibid. p. 52.

C the litle flesshe that I had is clene goon : and yet I am not sike, but in maner I ete very litle, and this 5 weekes day I never slepte one hole houre without wakinge, my myend is soe troubled for feare that any thinge should frame amys : which lak of slepe doth take awaye the stomake and for lak of sustynannce the flesshe doth goo awaye. But I knowe myself too bee as a wasshing hors is that sone wool lose flesshe and soon recover it agayne : whiche I feare I shall never doo as long as I have this great chardge and contynuell business." * The same great " chardge " finished off Lord Dacre in 1525, and thereafter his son William reigned in his stead. After 1530 — when the firm hand of Thomas, Lord Dacre, had gone — the Scots grew more active. They began to rally from the con sequences of Flodden, and raids into England grew numerous.

"The Lord Maxwell and the Laird of Buccleughe " were then the " chief manteinirs of all misguyded men on the Bordours of Scotlande," but there were others, and in particular " the men of Tividale," the men from "round Gedworth" (Jedburgh), and the Eule valley. In these raids the men of the Hawick district had their share, according to the predilections of * State Papers, vol. iv. p. 55. their overlords. Those favourable to the Earl of Angus, " men of south Teviotdaill," were busy on several occasions. In 1532, Dacre wrote King Henry VIII., that James V. " came hunting the penult day of May into a waist ground called Crammell in Meggottes landes within 30 miles of the west Bordoures." " The common brute (report) and voice was to have made a roode upon the Debatable land and Liddisdaile men nowe being at the sheles frome their winter houses; upon the which brute the Parsonne of Awyke, one Pate Whitelowe,* two gentilmen of the Hebborns, being Kynnesmen unto th' Erie Bothwile came unto the castell of th' Armitage (Hermitage) in Liddisdaill to the keepers there, to holde the said castell to the behove of the said Eerl in salvegarde frome the said King in case He had common thidder."-f- From which we gather that the said "parson of Hawick" had his own views concerning James V., " King of Fife and the Lothians."

In general these raids or forays were not bloodthirsty expeditions and were distinguished from private feuds by their more genial and wholesome aspects. The Borderers (English and Scots) loved a fight and they * Might not this be Pate Gladstains of Whitlaw 1 t State Papers, vol. iv. p. 60S. loved plunder. They burned and harried : but they seldom slaughtered and almost never needlessly. There were savage incidents on both sides : murders of women and children : but they were so rare that they may now be forgotten. Other instances there were of kindliness and of generosity. An English prison was not a grave : the doors often flew open. Carlisle walls could be scaled. The hanging tree no doubt was an institution, and had often a rich harvest ; but the " notour thief," and not the honourable and occasional cattle lifter, was its principal victim.

On the Warden fell the hardest task. The Earl of Angus and Lord Maxwell were Wardens for Scotland during this period. They had to curb the inveterate propensities of their countrymen : they were feared and often disliked on both sides of the Border. One of the best of the Buccleuchs has gone down honoured in Scottish history simply because he was a Scotsman first and a Warden afterwards. They had a thankless task — blamed and scolded by their Kings and looked on askance by their luckier neighbours who had a free hand. The Earl of Northumberland, writing to Henry VIII. in 1532,* gives a fine account of a foray. It was led * State Papers, vol. iv. p. 613. by " the Rotherfordes, Carrs, Davysons, Pryngelles, Hailes, Trumbilles, Hunters, Eobsons, Waughes, and Wais of Teviotdaill, and of the forest of Gedworth, being 400 in numbre, as to say 300 tryed horsemen and a 100 fotemen."

They came into England " at the close nyght " at " Belles in Tyndall " seizing all manner of goods as they rode. It was thereafter an " opyn day forrey " but ended disastrously for the invaders. Six score of them were wounded with spear and arrow ; one was killed ; and in the end a varied selection from the different families were captured and duly reserved to be hung " on Sunday, the 25th day of this instant month of August." They were not, however, hung on this occasion at least, for a deliverer came. No less a person than Lord Dacre himself — son of the grim Thomas — who gave orders to "let them escape" — to the great disgust of Northumberland. For, said Lord Dacre, if they " should be put to execution, then he should concur in deadly seid with Tyvidaill, seing they were of the principalles of said countrey."

A more daring exploit followed, which led to Northumberland invading Scotland at His Majesty's "most drad com mandment." This was an invasion in force. It had one feature that especially roused the ire of England. The standards were unfurled. This was the strongest form of contempt the Borderers indulged in. There were about 3000 men, and the observers did not only perceive "two greate bushements made but alsoo did see openly 3 Standardes displayed, as to say, the Larde of Sesforthes, the Larde of Bucklewghes, and the Larde of Farnyhirstes." These had with them all the head men of Ettrick, with all Teviotdale on horseback or on foot, and men from the Merse, Jedforest, and Lauder dale. There was no stopping them, so "thei most contemptwosly had into Scoteland diverse prisoners with great numbre of horse, nolte, and sheipe." * This foray went in " by the edge of Cheviot."

There were smaller raids on both sides in abundance, and the Wardens had their hands full. There was little peace till fully sixty years later. These raids must be distinguished from the continual plunderings that were carried on by men more dis tinctively and in the language of the time alone accurately known as "thieves;" outrages committed on friend or foe indiscriminately by outlaws, desperadoes, " broken men." Of this class Liddesdale and the Debateable Land had abundance. Teviotdale itself had a bad name as a refuge for them, and Tynedale was * State Papers, vol. iv. p. 626. notorious. Their deeds were often dark deeds of black treachery. Heroes there were among them, honour, and a decided love of liberty. But such deeds as dishonour able outrage on the property of both sides at Flodden were unfortunately as characteristic of them as of the ruder Highlanders.

All raiders were doubtless thieves in the language of the immediate victim ; but to the raiders themselves the thief par excellence was the fellow-Scot, who relieved them of their hardly-acquired plunder on the way home. Liddesdale was a trouble some thorn to both countries. Its disposition was too variable to be tolerated. After the raid in 1532, that we have j ust noted, we find the Earl of Northumberland reckoning that the Jedforest and Teviotdale men must have entered by Tynedale, because had they gone into Liddesdale not one of them would ever have returned, " so trewe are they to Your Highnes." This was, how ever, after the murder of Johnnie Armstrong. Forays against England were at all times lawful to fill the Exchequer. They were not only, at times, profitable, but they were the delight of existence.

Under the necessary conditions of the case, quite recognised by all, they were conducted fairly and honourably. Cattle were the " current coin " — as they were in the dawn of history — and it was necessary that they should be kept in circulation. The bloated English capitalist of the time was naturally the envy of his neighbours. But he held his wealth by the strong arm alone, and he was vulnerable. The man who hoarded wealth was a bad citizen; but the Border law made short work of him. Even the "thief" had his excuse. The Borderers held a dangerous post, and a thankless one. Deprived themselves, by their very situation, of law and order in any peaceful sense, they were treated with scant ceremony by their more fortunate country men, who, not the less, relied on the strong Border arm for national defence.

It is little wonder that in Border verse we find the most virile and the saddest poetry of our nation. If the Borderers achieved and retained independence, they at the same time sealed it in blood and tears. To many vices they added many virtues and a sterling honour. Nor must it be forgotten that, in later and more peaceful years, they attained first rank in literature, as they had already attained it in war. Three of the very greatest names in Scottish literary history — Hume, Scott, and Carlyle — are Border names, and the illustrious bearers of them were Borderers, sprung of purely Border stock. It is characteristic of their race that each of them was the leader of a revolt. Such were the old days, when life was held cheap. We have glanced at them, because it is to this period of the first quarter of the sixteenth century that our town tradition belongs.

It came to pass under these con ditions. But, before we trace that tradition to establish it, we think it will conduce to clearness if we first discuss the Town Common and the old ceremony of the Riding of its Meiths and Marches that come into notice with the year 1537, leaving it to later chapters to discuss at length the tradition itself, and the town pennon that is linked to it and still exists — our sole clue to the truth concerning it. D

Chapter II. The Common And The Riding Of The Marches

" Show by what danger and difficile ways Our ancestours at their utter mightis Has brought this realm with honour to our days Aye fightand for their liberties and rightis." John Bellenden (beginning of 16th century). (b I HE flag of the town of Hawick has been througheLL out all its existence, as known to us, associated with the riding of the Common, which takes place annually. It is necessary, therefore, to sketch briefly the place the tradition of 1514, which we are about to consider, occupies in regard to this ancient and very interesting ceremony. The Common -Riding existed long before 1514, but tradition leads us to the inference, that, in consideration of the great services rendered in that year by the youth of the town, a high and honourable place was accorded to them at the riding of the marches.

Whether or not there was a flag in use before 1514 we do not know, but on the authority of RIDING OF THE MARCHES. 19 tradition we can say that shortly after that year, at all events, a flag was introduced into the ceremony, and adopted as a town flag, and that flag was a pennon captured at Hornshole. Tradition may be entirely wrong, but, as we do not wish to alter it nor to mix it up with conjectures of our own, we state the case as by tradition we learn it. That flag was allowed to be carried at the ceremony, and, as a mark of honour to the youth of the place, and to keep up remembrance for ever of their brave deed, the son of a burgess was chosen annually for the office of Standard Bearer or Cornet. As time went on, and particularly towards the end of last century, this (a matter at first collateral merely to an important and serious duty) became the most rousing and stimulating feature in the observance.