138 On, Armorial Bearings, &c. By Walter Laidlaw. 



as he honourably distinguished himself at the siege of Warke, under the 

 Duke of Albany, on the 18th of the following month." 



The damage done by the English and their hired allies from Liddesdale 

 who had submitted to English rule, at Fernieherst by the inroads from 

 9th Sept. 1543 to 29th June 1544, were the following, as appears by a 

 document in the Harleian Collection (British Museum.) 



" Ultimo Octobris (1543.) The Armstrongs with the Lyddesdaylis per 

 mandatum [Thome Wharton.]" " The graunge of Fame hurst, all the houas 

 of the onsettis with muche corne and catell of the lord of Farnehurst bront : 

 one slayne." Sir Raff Evers letters of the 19th of July. " Tynsdaill and 

 Ryddesdale with Mr Clifforth and his garryson etc., have burned a towne 

 called Bedrowll with 15 or 10 other stedcs where they have gotten 300 

 noite, 600 shepe, with verve much insight, and in theyr comming home 

 fought with the lord Farnyhnrst and his companye and toke him and his 

 sonne John Carr prysoners, and brought awaye 300 nolte, 600 shepe, and 

 much insight geare with 3 basses which the lord Farnihurst brought to the 

 field with him." (Armstrong's Hist, of Liddesdale, App. pp. lvii, lxiv). 



In 1.549, Fernieherst had been rebuilt, and again taken and 

 garrisoned by the English, which they had held for three or four 

 months, when Fernieherst, with the assistance of a "body of 

 Frenchmen under the command of Monsieur Desse," along with 

 the Borderers, assaulted the forteess. In less than an hour, but 

 not without hard fighting, a breach in the wall was made, 

 through which the Captain of the English came and offered to 

 give up the place upon assurance that their lives should be saved. 

 He, however, had to surrender unconditionally ; and as the 

 English had committed many .atrocities while they held the 

 Castle, the Borderers, thirsting for vengeance, exercised many 

 barbarities and great cruelty in retaliation. With the exception 

 of the breach in the Avail, the Castle did not suffer much at that 

 time. Ten years afterwards, Sir Thomas Ker succeeded his 

 father, and was Lord Warden of the Marches of Scotland, 

 Provost of Edinburgh and Jedburgh, and was a loyal adherent 

 of Queen Mary. The same day on which the Regent Murray 

 was murdered by Bothwellhaugh, Fernieherst and his brother- 

 in-law, Buccleugh, with their clans, made a destructive inroad 

 into England, " and spread devastation along the frontiers with 

 unusual ferocity," which was avenged by the Earl of Sussex and 

 Lord Hunsdon in 1570, when Fernieherst Castle was thrown in 

 ruins. In a letter from Lord Hunsdon to Sir William Cecil, 

 Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, of date 23rd April 1570, 

 he says — " The next day (18th) we marchyd too Hawyke ; wher, 

 by the way, we began with Farnhurst and Hunthylle, whose 



