<bgsound src="http://www.multimidizone.co.uk/midifiles/film/braveheart.mid" loop=infinite> Page Updated March 25, 2003 "I curse them going I curse them riding, I curse them sitting and I curse them standing, I curse them eating and I curse them drinking, I curse them waking and I curse them sleeping..."[The Archbishop of Glasgow] Everyone has visions of their ancestors being kings and queens, or at least from noble lineage. Sorry, my dear Salkelds, our family has the proud lineage descending from the Reivers. For 400 years from the time of Edward I until the Union of Parliaments (Between England and Scotland) in 1707, Northumberland was the scene of one of the longest running border conflicts the world has ever known. Feuding families, known as Reivers, with names such as ...Salkeld...fought a seemingly endless series of raids and reprisals across the border hills.[Northumberland and the Border Wars with Scotland] As George MacDonald Fraser explains in his book, "The Steel Bonnets", The great border tribes of both Scotland and England feuded continuously among themselves. Robbery and blackmail were everyday professions: raiding, arson, kidnapping, murder, and extortion were an accepted part of the social system. While the monarchs of England and Scotland ruled the...secure hearts of their kingdoms, the narrow hill land between was dominated by the lance and the sword. Kinmont Willie was a...raider whose frequent successes made him an object of much dislike to the English Wardens. In March 1596 there was a day's truce for the meeting of the Wardens,which was held at Dayholm.... As a retainer of Buccleuch, his Warden and feudal lord, Kinmont Willie was present, and as he rode homewards with a small band of friends, a body of two hundred English horsemen, commanded by Salkeld, deputy of Lord Scrope,...surprised him, and, after a chase of two or three miles, took him prisoner....It was a shameless violation of the Border Law, which ordained that on those days of truce all Scots and Englishmen who were present at the...meeting should be free of harm....[The Border Reivers by Jean Lang]{Link} In the story of Britain, the Border Reiver is a unique figure. He was not a separate minority group in his area; he came from every social class. He was an agricultural labourer, or a small-holder or a gentleman farmer, or even a peer of the realm, a professional cattle rustler, a fighting man and a guerrilla soldier of great resource to whom the arts of theft, raid, tracking, and ambush were second nature. He was also a gangster organized on highly professional lines....[This excerpt is taken from the Border Reivers which is a page on the web, it is highly recommended for more information] {Link}{Map} "O have ye na heard o the fause Sakelde...."{Click} SALKELD COAT OF ARMS Contr. by Carlos Salkeld, U.S.A. Reiving was mainly a seasonal event as there was a preference for marauding from Lammas-tide (1 August) until the reconvening of the official judicial courts three months later....[Border Reivers] SALKELD COAT OF ARMS Contr. by Duncan Salkeld via Bonnie Salkeld-Beglin, Gr. Britain & U.S.A. The Bishop of Ross, John Lesly, wrote of his country men, the Borderers as though he spoke of those of another nation: They reckon it a great disgrace, and the part of mean person for any one to make a journey on foot, whence it follows that they are mostly all horsemen....They take great pleasure in their own music, and in their rhythmical songs, or in their own ingenious stratagems in plundering, or their artificial defences when taken. Besides, they think the art of plundering so very lawful, that they never say over their prayers more fervently, or have more devout recurrence to the beads of their rosaries, than when they have made an expedition...for the sake of booty.... With such secrecy can they proceed, that they very rarely have their booty taken from them, unless when, by the help of bloodhounds, following them exactly upon the track, they may chance to fall into the hands of their adversaries. But if they are taken, their eloquence is so powerful, and the sweetness of their language so winning, that they even can move both judges and accusers, however severe before, if not to mercy, at least to admiration and compassion.[The Border Reivers by Jean Lang] In addition to the warlike activities of the Reivers, it would seem that they played a basic version of the modern game of soccer. It had been recorded that Mary Queen of Scots watched a two hour match taking place in the meadow between the walls of Carlisle Castle where she was imprisoned. Also, the Reivers left a lasting testament to the English language as many a grieving widow was left "bereaved" and familes were "blackmailed." Rent payable to the landowner was referred as "greenmail" and so protection money paid to the stronger reiving families became known as "blackmail." A bereaved widow wrote in her ballad... ..There came a man by midle day, He spied hi sport and went away; And brought the king that very night, Who broker my bower and slew my knight. He slew my knight, to me sae dear; He slew my knight and poin'd his gear; My servants all for life did flee, And left me in extremitie. I sew'd his sheet, making my mane; I watch'd the corpse, myself alane; I watch'd his body night and day; No living creature came that way. I took his body on my back; And while I gaed, and whiles I sat; I digg'd a grave, and laid him in, And happ'd him with the sod sae green.... Nae living man I'll lo'e again, Since that my lovely knight is slain, Wi' ae lock of his yellow hair, I'll chain my heart for evermair. If the career of more than one of our ancestors may been cut short on the gallows tree, yet can we boast of the dauntless courage and daring, the unfailing coolness and resourcefulness in the face of dire emergenecy the unblemished loyalty and faithfulness of those who, in later days, might have built empires,-the men of the Border Marches: "Though now the hot hoofs thunder, No more down Coquet Side, Nor south for white-armed plunder, The wild moss-troopers ride, When Beauty wants a warder, When fight and foray start, We, bred upon the Border, Have still the reiver's heart."[The Border Reivers by Jean Lang] ...(The) notable English family name, Salkeld, emerged as an influential name in the county of cumberland where they were recorded as a family of great antiquity seated as Lords of the manor of Great and Little Salkeld and estates in the shire. This distinguished name was considered to be on(e) of the two greatests Clans, along with the Musgraves, defending the English West Marches of the English Scottish Border. By the 13th century the Clan had acquired Whitehall, Garbarrow, Salter, and Holtmerock in Cumberland, Rossgill in Westmoreland, Bassington in Northumberland. By the 15th century they had also branched south into Oxfordshire at Pradsey and Ruskett. Sir Richard Salkeld of Corby engraved the Arms of the family over the mantelpiece in Castle Salkeld in 1270 and can still be seen inthe ruins. Notable amongst the family at this time was Sir Richard Salkeld of Corby. During the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries England was savaged by plagues, famine, and religious conflict.... Some families were forced to migrate to Ireland where they became known as the Adventurers for land in Ireland.... In Ireland they settled mostly in counties Dublin and Wicklow. The New World offered better opportunities and some migrated voluntarily, some were banished mostly for religious reasons.... Members of the family name Salkeld sailed aboard the hge armada of three masted sailing ships known as the White Sails which plied the stormy Atlantic. These overcrowded ships such as the Hector, the Dove, and the Rambler, where pestilence ridden, sometimes 30% to 40% of the passenger list never reaching their desitination.... From their port of entry many settlers made their way west, joing the wagon trains to the prairies onto the west coast. During the American War of Independence, many loyalists made their way north to Canada about 1790, and became known as the United Empire Loyalists.[From the Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname SALKELD](Contributed by John Barry Salkeld, England) Sir Richard and Jane Salkeld's six children were all females. This became a problem for Sir Richard. His male Salkeld line was not to be, andhe had no male Salkeld heirs to leave Corby and it's lands to. He made a mistake that the Salkeld family would pay dearly for in the future. He named co-heirs, Margaret and Katherine, his two oldest daughters. This would start a 125 year family feud with bickering and costly law suits that would eventually end with the Salkeld Family's loss of Corby (Castle) as well as destroying the family's fortune.[Contr. by Ken Salkeld, Indiana, U.S.A.] Sir Francis Salkeld of Whitehall, married Jane Vaux. Sir Richard died in 1501 and was buried in Wetherall with this crude epitaph upon his tomb: Here lyes Sir Richard Salkeld Knight Who in this land was mickle of might The governor of Carlisle Castle was he And also the Lord of Chorby But now he lies under this stane And by him his wife Lady Jane As wee are now so must you be Pray for our souls of Charity.
A bereaved widow wrote in her ballad...
He slew my knight, to me sae dear; He slew my knight and poin'd his gear; My servants all for life did flee, And left me in extremitie.
I sew'd his sheet, making my mane; I watch'd the corpse, myself alane; I watch'd his body night and day; No living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back; And while I gaed, and whiles I sat; I digg'd a grave, and laid him in, And happ'd him with the sod sae green....
Nae living man I'll lo'e again, Since that my lovely knight is slain, Wi' ae lock of his yellow hair, I'll chain my heart for evermair.
During the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries England was savaged by plagues, famine, and religious conflict.... Some families were forced to migrate to Ireland where they became known as the Adventurers for land in Ireland.... In Ireland they settled mostly in counties Dublin and Wicklow. The New World offered better opportunities and some migrated voluntarily, some were banished mostly for religious reasons.... Members of the family name Salkeld sailed aboard the hge armada of three masted sailing ships known as the White Sails which plied the stormy Atlantic. These overcrowded ships such as the Hector, the Dove, and the Rambler, where pestilence ridden, sometimes 30% to 40% of the passenger list never reaching their desitination....
From their port of entry many settlers made their way west, joing the wagon trains to the prairies onto the west coast. During the American War of Independence, many loyalists made their way north to Canada about 1790, and became known as the United Empire Loyalists.[From the Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname SALKELD](Contributed by John Barry Salkeld, England)