When
Charles Edward Stuart holder of both crowns continued to shake up
the borders, strong armies attacked the reiver clans from both sides of the border, drove
them into swamps, surrounded their hiding places,
torched their homes, hanged hundreds of warriors and
effectively broke the clan structure.
The
remnants of those
families scattered throughout the UK, some to the
highlands and some blended into English culture.
Others were deported to Ulster, but many packed up everything they
could and emigrated to Colonial America.
Now, some three hundred
and fifty years later, some ignorant historians have
tossed them into one basket and called them,
"Scots (or Scotch) Irish."
It is
no less curious
that many of the Reiver surnames were neither Scot
nor English, and nowhere in very old records are they referred to as
Scotch.
For
those who forget this fact, please check your history.
Robert The Bruce was king of the Scots, not king of the
Scotch.
This
Scotch nickname is
a common mistake made by ignorant or sloppy authors down through
the ages, and often repeated by contemporary researchers who parrot that label, an insulting
and most deplorable nickname for a Scot.
Some
contemporary descendents of ancestors who lived on the borders claim
that they descend from
Vikings, Normans, or other bloodlines including Picts. Some of them
were, but some were not, reivers of course, and now it is time to meet them.
Now meet the
Border Reivers and
introduce yourselves.
Donald
O'Collaugh
O'Kelly,
© Potted Histories, © Fun
Histories
March 1996
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