A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



levying of blackmail, was dealt with by the Act of 43 Elizabeth, cap. 13. 

 It recited that many persons residing in Cumberland, Northumberland, 

 Westmorland and Durham were taken from their houses and carried 

 away as prisoners and kept till they were redeemed with great ransoms ; 

 and that of late there had been many incursions, raids and spoiling of 

 towns, villages and houses within the said counties, so that many 

 had been forced to pay a certain rate of money, corn or cattle, com- 

 monly called blackmail, 1 to divers persons inhabiting near the borders. 

 By this Act, which was not repealed till 7 and 8 George IV., the 

 takers of blackmail were judged to be felons and punished with 

 death without benefit of clergy. King James proceeded to the 

 Border to consult for the due enforcement of the international agree- 

 ments, and was met at Newby near Annan by Mr. Leigh, the deputy 

 warden, and Mr. Aglionby, the mayor of Carlisle. The main object of 

 James during the closing years of the century was to secure his accession 

 to the English throne, and no doubt his interest in Border affairs was 

 quickened by his desire ultimately to unite the two kingdoms and carry 

 to a successful conclusion the policy at which Edward I. and Henry VIII. 

 in earlier days had aimed. 



The union of the two kingdoms under one monarch, though not 

 accompanied by the union of the nations, prepared men's minds for that 

 most desirable event. At the very outset of his reign King James was 

 confronted with the old difficulties of the Border land, for while he 

 was at Berwick on his way to London intelligence was brought of a 

 destructive foray into Cumberland which reached as far as Penrith. 

 Sir William Selby was at once despatched to the rescue at the head of a 

 strong escort. Though the raiders fled in terror at his approach, some 

 of them were captured and hanged, and many of their habitations were 

 blown up and burnt.* For the speedy suppression of offenders and the 

 restoration of law and order, the middle shires, as the borders were now 

 called, were placed under the jurisdiction of a royal commission and gov- 

 erned as a Crown colony. The first meeting of the commissioners was 

 held in Carlisle on 9 April 1605, when certain articles for their guidance 

 were agreed upon, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson was elected convener. All 

 persons living within the bounds of the commission or in certain other 

 specified districts were forbidden the use of armour, weapons, and horses, 

 ' savinge meane naggs for their tillage,' and the troublesome inhabitants 

 should be removed to some other place ' where the change of aire will 

 make in them an exchange of their manners.' The Grahams of Esk were 

 the first to feel the inconvenience of the new regime. The commissioners 

 were determined to root them out. Sir Wilfrid Lawson stated in 1605 



1 The local definition of blackmail is very curious. The Grahams defined it in 1596 as ' a protection 

 money or a reward pro clientela ' ; it was called ' a defence ' by those who received and ' a black maile ' 

 by those who paid it (Border Papers, ii. 143-4, 156, 163-4). 



a Ridpath, Border Hist. p. 703, quoting Stowe, Chron. p. 819. The raid was made by the Grahams to 

 the number of eighty, headed by Walter Graham of Netherby, who were persuaded that until James 

 was a crowned king in England, the laws of the kingdom ceased and were of no force, and that all offences 

 done in the meantime were not punishable (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. [Muncaster MSS.], x. App. iv. 244). 



282 



