For more than three centuries, the English and Scottish borderlands were among the most violent places in Britain. When Edward I invaded Scotland in 1296, he started a cycle of warfare that rarely let up. Armies from both kingdoms trampled crops and burned farms, so families who could not live by farming alone turned to raiding. Cattle theft, plunder, arson, and protection rackets became a way of life. These “reivers” broke the law, but their neighbours on both sides of the line largely accepted them.
Few families show this world better than the Carruthers. They trace their origins to lands in the West March named Carruthers in Annandale, Dumfriesshire. Annandale sat between Nithsdale, home of the Maxwells, and Liddesdale, home of the Scotts, so the family lived among some of the border’s most powerful and quarrelsome neighbours.
Border fighting was already shaping national events. In 1388 at Otterburn, Henry “Hotspur” Percy attacked the Scottish camp as the dusk of the evening set in, but the Scots counter-attacked, and the fight went on through the night. The Scots won, though the Earl of Douglas was killed and both Percy brothers were captured. Sources disagree on the actual date, giving either the 5th or 19th of August, and troop numbers are uncertain. However, the battle showed how much the crowns relied on Border fighters, and the loss of leaders on both sides left the lands with a long period of feuding.
At one time, it is said that the Carruthers served the Douglas, lords of Annandale, and one historian describes them as shield-bearers to the Red Douglas. Although recognised as a highly respected land-owning family in its own right, this is a reminder of how closely the family of Carruthers were tied to the great border houses of the day.
Scotland’s disaster at Flodden in 1513 simply made things worse. King James IV was killed along with much of the Scottish nobility, and the Borders slid further into violence and lawlessness. That instability set the stage for reiving at its peak in the later sixteenth century.
Church and crown tried their hardest to restrain the raiders. In 1525, Archbishop Gavin Dunbar of Glasgow issued an extraordinary curse against them, a curse that included our family name. Its length is disputed: one account counts 1,069 words, while another counts 1,478. What it did do was it cursed the reivers from head to foot, along with their livestock, crops, and homes. It was ordered to be read from pulpits across his diocese however, even the wrath of God did little to stop the raiding.
Royal justice could be just as harsh. In 1530, James V executed Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie and his followers. Although legend suggests that the king resented Armstrong’s fine clothes, historians more often suspect that rivals, especially the Maxwells who Carruthers were known to support, wanted his lands.
The Carruthers paid a heavy price in this era. In 1548, Sir Simon Carruthers, 10th of Mouswald, the last chief of the senior line, was killed in a border raid leaving two orphan daughters. The raid which was meant to clear the Debatable Lands, saw the extinction of the Mouswald line. Simon had married Marion Johnstone, linking both names, although as was often the fluidity of border life, the two families would later find themselves on opposite sides of a great feud. After his death the chiefship passed to the Carruthers of Holmains, the senior cadet branch, who have held it ever since.
Governments also tried drawing lines on the map. In 1552, commissioners divided the Debatable Lands, a no-man’s-land on the western border, between England and Scotland. They marked the new frontier with an earthwork called the Scots’ Dike, which was meant to end the area’s independence. However, reiving was such a set way of life and this did little to end the lawlessness. The Armstrongs, Grahams, and neighbours such as the Elliots and Bells as well as Carruthers, stayed powerful, and raiding continued into the 1600s.
Even official and relatively peaceful meetings between Scotland and England could turn violent. At the Raid of the Redeswire in 1575, a day of truce turned into a small battle, and only the arrival of Scottish reinforcements from Jedburgh helped rout the English. it was only background diplomacy that kept it from escalating into becoming a wider war. This event is often called the last major battle between the two kingdoms, before the crowns united.
By the 1580s, the authorities saw the Carruthers as part of the problem. A 1587 Act of Parliament listed 34 clans from the Highlands and Islands and 17 from the Anglo-Scottish Border riding families. Carruthers were listed amongst those of the West March, with the then Chief, John Carruthers, 7th of Holmains being mentioned by name.
The reivers’ raiding, which was not only across the borders, but also into the lands of their neighbours, led to ongoing tit for tat attacks against other clans. Because of this and the distinct and deep rooted family loyalty that existed, feuds quickly turned into ongoing private wars lasting many years. These could be as bloody and as murderous as those between nations.
In 1593 at Dryfe Sands mear Lockerbie, the Maxwells marched on the Johnstones of Annandale. Estimates put the Maxwells at about 2,000 and the Johnstones at 600 to 800, with Scotts and Grahams reported as Johnstone allies. The Johnstones broke the Maxwell force and cut it down, and about 700 Maxwells died, including Lord Maxwell. A backhanded sword stroke from horseback often used by the Johnstons, became known as the “Lockerbie Lick.” By tradition, Maxwell’s hand was cut off as he tried to surrender with it being nailed to the door of Lochwood Tower.
The Carruthers may have been caught in the middle. George Carruthers of Holmains was a strong Maxwell supporter, although there is no evidence Carruthers fought beside Maxwell at Dryfe Sands.
Three years later saw an episode in border history, which was to turn into a legend in Scottish folklore. On the night of 13 April 1596, Walter Scott of Buccleuch led about 80 men to Carlisle Castle to free Kinmont Willie Armstrong a notorious reiver and outlaw, who had been seized during a truce. The raiders had inside help from English Grahams and Carletons. Elizabeth was furious, and the affair nearly sparked war between the two kingdoms.
The end of the reivers lifestyle came with the Union of the Crowns. When Elizabeth I died in 1603, her distant cousin James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The crowns no longer had two sides to play against each other. At this point, a concerted effort to establish law and order in the region was initiated by the Crown. This crackdown included viscious military actions against reiver clans and the destruction of their fortified dwellings, thus effectively dismantling their way of life
Executions became common place seeing the end of the Border courts, the renaming of the Marches as the “Middle Shires,” and further forced removals to Ireland and elsewhere. These combined actions broke the old order by about 1610. However, the Reiver spirit continued but the Reiving way of life progressively died out. So ended over 300 years of lawlessness that shaped the borders and many border families for many years to come.
Summary
Carruthers were not the largest, nor by all accounts the most viscous but they did lead the reiving life. There were incidents that place our family squarely in the thick of things and as it has been shown, allegiances were fluid. The ties with the Johnston’s, who were responsible for the death of John Carruthers 6th of Mouswald after the capture of Lochmaben castle in 1554, the Carruthers support of Maxwell over many years, yet no indication of fighting at Dryffe sands, the abuse of the Mouswald orphans by the Douglas’s, yet for a period we were linked feudally or otherwise, to all these names.
This is simply a snapshot of just how tumultuous the period was and why family loyalty superseded anything else, which in turn is reflected in the Chiefs’ motto – Promptus et Fidelis (ready and faithful) and my own, Non Sto Solus (I do not stand alone).
Carruthers is a proud, ancient name with a rich Border and Scottish history. Why, well we were there and we rode with the best and worst of them, and that bloodline lives through us all to this very day!
Promptus et Fidelis
Non Sto Solus
