The Making of Our Reiver History—Five Startling Discoveries
When the BagtownClans.com team launched the Ancient Clans of Scotland series, we promised deep dives into Highland lineages. Along the way we collected so many Border‐land discoveries that they demanded their own volume. The result—sitting just outside the main series, yet sharing its research DNA—is Scotland’s Border Reivers: Raids, Feuds, and Frontier Law.
Writing it overturned half of what we thought we knew about those steel-bonnet riders. Below are five surprises that reshaped our draft—and might reshape your image of the Anglo-Scottish frontier. If the revelations intrigue you, the full, image-rich study is now in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.
1 Women Ran the Numbers
Jedburgh court rolls show Marion Armstrong setting ransom prices while armed cousins stood guard, and the Privy Council fined Isabel Nixon for personally escorting black-mail payments. Logistics, not just lullabies.
2 Most Raids Were “Micro Ops”
Warden dockets reveal that a typical lift involved 8–15 riders and wrapped in under twenty minutes. Silent precision beat swashbuckling charges.
3 Black-Mail Looked Like Insurance
Rate charts listed quarterly “premiums” by herd size, with money-back guarantees if stock was lost on the captain’s watch. Brutal—but contractual.
4 DNA Is Re-drawing Family Trees
Armstrong Y-clusters (I-M223) hold firm, but an Elliot line in Kentucky traces to Maxwell markers—apparently through a hostage foster-brother circa 1600. Molecules now edit folklore.
5 Pacification Wasn’t Instant
LiDAR scans show at least 30 bastles refortified after James VI’s 1605 edicts. Musket scarring at Westburnflat dates to ~1630—late hold-outs history almost forgot.
Scotland’s Border Reivers: Raids, Feuds, and Frontier Law is a companion to our Ancient Clans titles—same research standards, fresh frontier focus.
