292 The Ballad of Kinmont Willie. 



31st March, 1911. 



Chairman — Mr S. Arnott, V.P. 



The Ballad of Kinmont Willie. By Mr Frank Miller, 

 Annan. 



Next to John Armstrong of Gihiockie, the most famous of 

 the old freebooters of the Scottish Border is William Armstrong 

 of Morton Tower or Kinmont, commonly called " Kinmont 

 Willie,'' who flourished in the time of James VI. Captain 

 Walter Scott of Satchells declares that Kinmont " from Gilt- 

 knocky sprang;"^ but there does not appear to be any evidence 

 in favour of his statement, and, as regards lineage, he may have 

 confounded Kinmont Will with Christie's Will, a thief who 

 occupied Gilnockie Tower in the reign of Charles I., and was 

 undoubtedly a descendant of the "murdered " chief. ^ Kinmont 

 was the son of Alexander Armstrong — better known as " 111 Will's 

 Sandy," for, as Sir Richard Maitland remarks, every Border 

 reiver possessed '' ane to-name," or a nick-name.^ His wife 

 ' being a daughter of a Graham of Esk called Base Hutchen,* he 

 had allies in Cumberland — men as reckless as the Armstrongs 

 themselves. 



To the English officers Kinmont and his retinue of a hundred 

 Armstrongs proved very troublesome. In September, 1583, 

 the English Warden of the west marches reported to Wal- 

 singham that " Kinmonte, his sonnes and complices," rode nightly 

 in Bewcastle and elsewhere, yet were not even " reproched ' ' by 

 the Scottish Warden for their conduct. Kinmont's forays spread 

 desolation far and wide. On one occasion he made a raid into 

 Tynedale and " took away forty score kye and oxen, three score 

 horses and meares, 500' sheep, burned 60 houses, and spoiled 



1. " A True History of Several Honourable Families of the 

 Right Honourable Name of Soot," edit. 1894, p. 12. 



2. For the pedigree of Christie's Will, see Scott's Supplement 

 to " Johnie Armstrang." 



3. See his poem, " Aganis the Thievis of Liddisdail." 



4. Calendar of Border Papers, edited by Joseph Bain, Vol. II., 

 Appendix II. 



