| THE SCOTTISH BORDER FAMILIES Research has uncovered a
considerable amount of History which deals with Scottish Families in the 14th and 15th
centuries. The Taits, were probably a part of the ANGUS or perhapts the Mac-INNES Clan,
but I have not been able to verify that. The Taits were a Scottish Border Family and were
located in the Middle March just south of Jedburgh, Scotland, and were reported to be
followers of the KERR Clan. George MacDonnald Frazer wrote the book "The Steel
Bonnets" in 1971. He has been studying the Scottish Border History and its people all
his life. A highland Scot born in Carlisle which makes him under the old-fashiion
definition, an "outman" or foreigner, he became absorbed in frontier history
while a pupil at the Old Carlisle Grammer School, and this young interest eventually led
him to the historical and local research which culminated in The Steel Bonnets.
The following are excerpt from "THE STEEL BONNETS", pages 3, 85-87, 89, 173,
257, & 377.
The Taits, among others, were considered one of the Frontier Riding Families. Acording to
the records they were "Reivers" (pronounced Reavers). The Border Reivers, or
Borderers, were aggressive, ruthless, robbers, marauders, plunderers, violent people,
notoriously quick on the draw, ready and occasionally eager to kill in action, when life
or property or honor was at stake. When I was younger, I heard a lot of stories about my
relatives. I use to remark that they all sounded like they were a bunch of horse thieves.
Well, I was not far off, because the Border Reivers, both English and Scottish, feuded
continuously. Robbery and blackmail were everyday professions and raiding, arson,
kidnapping, murder and extortion were an important part of the social system. It was a way
of life pursued in peace time, by people who accepted it as normal. It meant that no
householder in all the Marches could go to sleep secure; no beast or cattle couls be left
unguarded.
The Borderer, was a specialist, and needed special equipment, the most important part
of which was his horse. The Border horses, called "hobblers" or
"hobbys", were small and fast, trained to cross the most difficult and boggy
country. Traveling between sixty and eighty miles a day seems to have been within their
capability. The riders wore a steel bonnet, basically a metal bowl or helmet in its
lightest form, it was open and peaked. Over his shirt, he might wear a mail coat, but the
more normal garment was a quilted coat of stout leather sewn with plates of metal added
for protection. Leather boots and breeches completed the clothing, which was without
badges except in war-time, when the riders wore kerchiefs tied around their arms as signs
of recognition, as well as the crosses of St. George or St. Andrew, according to their
nationality or their allegiance.
The Border Reiver rider's favorite weapon in peace or war was the lance. Sometimes as
long as thirteen feet, but most of them were shorter. They were used for thrusting, and
also for throwing. The Borderers on horseback often used their lances for spearing Salman
in the Solway; anyone who has tried to spear fish on foot will appreciate the expertise
required to do it from the saddle.
In 1511, Sir Robert Kerr, leader of the Kerr Clan, was Warden of the Middle March, and
his justice was too uncompromising for many on both sides of the line. At one day of
truce, fighting broke out, and Kerr was murdered by an English trio named Lilburn,
Starhead, and Heron, the Bastard of Ford. Lilburn was successfully arrested, and Heron's
legitimate brother was handed over for the Bastard's fault. Starhead, a follower of Heron
fled to York, "and there lived in Private and upon his guard", but two of Kerr's
followers, named Tait, made their way south. Sometimes apparently in disguise, murdered
him in his home, and brought his head back for public display.
In 1544, the Middle March riding families were the Davidsons, Pringles, Taits, Youngs,
Turnbulls, and Rutherfords, as well as the Scottish Robinsons. This is the list of the
frontier families of Scotland. In 1616, it was noted that the Middle Shires were "not
free of the mischief of theft", and in 1618, a list of "the last of the Border
Blackguards" appeared. But in fact they were not quite the last. The list of
thirty-two names is in the old tradition, beginning with the usual roll call of Elliot,
Scott, Gilchrist, Turnbull (Trumbule), Rutherford, Tait, Liddesdale, Turner, Henderson,
Johnstone, Graham, Hall, and the inevitable Armstrong. |