A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



an active part in civilizing the late border, and seems to have regarded 

 the employment as a pleasant pastime. Writing to Lawson on 9 

 January 1 607 he says : 



I would have been very glad to have seen you in my poor house, but sorry that you should 

 lose so much labour in this cold weather, and in such foul ways. I was away fishing, and I took 

 as many as I could get. I was in hopes to have taken Anton's Edward himself, but, for want 

 of a better, was glad to take his son Thomas Gifford, and Jock Sowlugs, 1 the last but not the 

 least in villainy. I desire you to keep him for a jewel of high price. Pray cause the records to 

 be searched. If you find matter sufficient to hang the other two, hould up your finger and they 

 shall be delivered. I confess myself a southern novice. 3 



For a novice, however, he was successful in his expeditions, and it 

 was in a great measure due to his efforts that the pacification of the 

 district was carried out. In his advice to the king in 1 6 1 5, he recom- 

 mended firm government rather than transplantation as the best cure 

 for the troubles of the middle shires. Lord William was a radical 

 reformer of the best type : he suggested as a first step a change of 

 governors. Of the commissioners Sir William Selby dwelt in Kent 

 and Sir John Fenwick was a gentleman that aimed more at private 

 life than public employment ; Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who dwelt in the 

 inmost part of Cumberland and was nearly eighty years of age, and Sir 

 William Hutton, who was in poor health, were both learned and 

 sufficient men, but altogether unable to serve in the field ; John Mus- 

 grave, the provost marshal, had been a serving man, was of mean 

 condition and weak estate, and in alliance and kinship with many sur- 

 names that had been heinous offenders, ' and some of them as yett no 

 saintes.' Among his recommendations he gave prominence to the 

 keeping and training of ' slue doggs ' for the purpose of hunting thieves 

 and outlaws through the mosses and waste lands of the marches as the 

 king formerly commanded. 3 In a short time this recommendation was 

 put into practice. On 29 September 1616 the commissioners revived 

 the old institution of setting watches in the dangerous districts and 

 made provision for the keeping of ' slough dogs ' at the charge of the 

 inhabitants. 4 



1 The real name of this villain was John Armstrong, who was accused of divers murders, and especially 

 of inhuman barbarity to a woman in the presence of Anton's Edward or Edward Armstrong, another 

 villain, guilty of twelve murders. Almost everybody in Cumberland at this period had ' to-names ' or 

 nicknames, from some peculiarity of person, dress, or belongings, some of them being reproachful or 

 offensive, like Jock Sowlugs. The custom was inevitable among clans where many persons of the same 

 name dwelt in one place. In the parish registers of the county the nicknames are often recorded in order 

 to distinguish the marriage or burial of the right person. 



* The above account of the pacification of Cumberland after the union of the Crowns is founded, 

 unless otherwise stated, on the records of the northern commission in possession of Lord Muncaster and 

 the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, as reported in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x. App. iv. 229-73, and Rep. ii. 

 App. pp. 181-2. The volume at Muncaster is supposed to have been written by Joseph Pennington, a 

 member of the commission, and that at Dunecht appears to be the official record kept by Sir Wilfrid 

 Lawson, as ' liber Wilf. Lawson ' is inscribed on the first page. 



3 Household Books of Lord W. Howard (Surtees Soc.), 417-20. 



4 These blood hounds, whose game was man, were disposed as follows : ' Imprimis, beyond Eske, by 

 the inhabitants there to be kept above the foot of Sarke, one dogge : item, by the inhabitants the inside 

 of Eske to Richmont's Clugh, to be kept at the Moate, one dogge : item, by the inhabitants of the parish 

 of Arthered, above Richmont's Clugh, with the Bayliffe and Black quarter, to be kept at the Bayliehead, 

 one dogge : item, Newcastle parish, besides the Baylie and Black quarters, to be kept at Tinkerhill, one 



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