A History of the Gipsies Part 16

"Between Yetholm and the Border farms, in Northumberland, there were formerly, as in most Border situations, some uncultivated lands, called the Plea-lands, or Debatable-lands, the pasturage of which was generally eaten up by the sorners and vagabonds, on both sides of the marches.

Many years ago, Lord Tankerville and some others of the English Borderers made their request to Sir David Bennet, and the late Mr.

Wauchope, of Niddry, that they would accompany them at a riding of the Plea-lands, who readily complied with their request. They were induced to this, as they understood that the Gipsies had taken offence, on the supposition that they might be circ.u.mscribed in the pasturage for their shelties and a.s.ses, which they had held a long time, partly by stealth, and partly by violence.

"Both threats and entreaties were employed to keep them away; and, at last, Sir David obtained a promise from some of the heads of the gang, that none of them should show their faces on the occasion. They, however, got upon the hills, at a little distance, whence they could see everything that pa.s.sed. At first they were very quiet. But when they saw the English court-book spread out, on a cus.h.i.+on, before the clerk, and apparently him taking in a line of direction, interfering with what they considered to be their privileged ground, it was with great difficulty that the most moderate of them could restrain the rest from running down and taking vengeance, even in sight of their own lord of the manor.

"They only abstained for a short time; and no sooner had Sir David and the other gentlemen taken leave of each other, in the most polite and friendly manner, as Border chiefs were wont to do, since Border feuds ceased, and had departed to a sufficient distance, than the clan, armed with bludgeons, pitchforks, and such other hostile weapons as they could find, rushed down in a body, and before the chiefs on either side had reached their home, there was neither English tenant, horse, cow nor sheep left upon the premises.

"Meeting at Kelso, with Mr. Walter Scott, whose discriminating habits and just observations I had occasion to know, from his youth, and, at the same time, seeing one of my Yetholm friends in the horse-market, I said to Mr. Scott, 'Try to get before that man with the long drab coat, look at him on your return, and tell me whether you ever saw him, and what you think of him.' He was as good as to indulge me; and, rejoining me, he said, without hesitation: 'I never saw the man that I know of; but he is one of the Gipsies of Yetholm, that you told me of, several years ago.' I need scarcely say that he was perfectly correct.

"When first I knew anything about the colony, old Will Faa was king, or leader; and had held the sovereignty for many years. The descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs. Fall, of Dunbar, who, they pride themselves in saying, are of the same stock and lineage. When old Will Faa was upwards of eighty years of age, he called on me, at Kelso, on his way to Edinburgh, telling me that he was going to see the laird, the late Mr. Nisbet, of Dirlton, as he understood that he was very unwell; and he himself being now old, and not so stout as he had been, he wished to see him once more before he died. He set out by the nearest road, which was by no means his common practice. Next market-day, some of the farmers informed me that they had been in Edinburgh, and seen Will Faa, upon the bridge, (the south bridge was not then built;) that he was tossing about his old brown hat, and huzzaing, with great vociferation, that he had seen the laird before he died.

Indeed, Will himself had no time to lose; for, having set his face homewards, by the way of the sea-coast, to vary his route, as is the general custom of the gang, he only got the length of Coldingham, when he was taken ill and died.

"His death being notified to his friends at Yetholm, they and their acquaintances at Berwick, Spittal, Horncliff, &c., met to pay the last honours to their old leader. His obsequies were continued three successive days and nights, and afterwards repeated at Yetholm, whither he was brought. I cannot say that the funeral rites were celebrated with decency and sobriety, for that was by no means the case. This happened in the year 1783, or 1784, and the late Mr. Nisbet did not long survive."[162]

[162] When Mr. Hoyland commenced making enquiries into the condition of the Gipsies, he addressed circulars to the sheriffs, for information. No less than thirteen Scotch sheriffs reported, "No Gipsies within the county." A report of this kind was nearly as good as would be that of a c.o.c.kney, as to there being no _foxes_ in the country; because, while riding through it, on the stage, he did not _see_ any! Baillie Smith's report, although graphic, is superficial.

He states that the Gipsies "marry early in life, and in general have many children;" yet "that their number _seems_ to be encreasing."--ED.

In addition to the above graphic report of Baillie Smith, I will now give a few details from a MS., given to me by Mr. Blackwood, towards the elucidation of the history of the Gipsies. This MS. bears the initials of A. W., and appears to have been written by a gentleman who had ample opportunities of observing the manners of the Border Gipsies.

"I am a native of Yetholm parish, and a residenter in it, with a little exception, for upwards of fifty years. I well remember Kirk-Yetholm, when the Faas and Youngs alone had a footing in it.[163] The Taits came next, and latterly, at various periods, the Dougla.s.ses, Blyths, Montgomerys, &c. Old William Faa, (with whom I was well acquainted, and saw him married to his third wife,[164]) constantly claimed kindred with the Falls of Dunbar; and persisted, to the last, that he himself was the male descendant, in a direct line, from the Earl of Little Egypt. For many years before his death, Mr. Nisbet of Dirlton, (the then laird of Kirk-Yetholm,) gave him the charge of his house, at Marlfield, and all its furniture, although he resided six miles distant from it. The key of the princ.i.p.al door was regularly delivered to him, at the laird's departure. I remember a sale of wood at Cherry-trees, belonging to the late Sheriff Murray. William Faa was a purchaser at the roup, and the sheriff proclaimed aloud to the clerk, that he would be Mr. Faa's cautioner. All the Tinklers in the village, and even strangers resorting thither, considered William Faa as the head and leader of the whole. His corpse was escorted betwixt Coldstream and Yetholm by above three hundred a.s.ses.

[163] The tribe of Young have preserved the following tradition respecting their first settlement in Yetholm: At a siege of the city of Namur, (date unknown,) the laird of Kirk-Yetholm, of the ancient family of Bennets, of Grubit and Marlfield, in attempting to mount a breach, at the head of his company, was struck to the ground, and all his followers killed, or put to flight, except a Gipsy, the ancestor of the Youngs, who resolutely defended his master till he recovered his feet, and then, springing past him upon the rampart, seized a flag which he put into his leader's hand. The besieged were struck with panic--the a.s.sailants rushed again to the breach--Namur was taken, and Captain Bennet had the glory of the capture. On returning to Scotland, the laird, out of grat.i.tude to his faithful follower, settled him and his family, (who had formerly been travelling tinkers and heckle-makers,) in Kirk-Yetholm; and conferred upon them, and the Faas, a fen of their cottages, for the s.p.a.ce of nineteen times nineteen years; which they still hold from the Marquis of Tweed-dale, the present proprietor of the estate.--_Blackwood's Magazine._--ED.

[164] On solemn occasions, Will Faa a.s.sumed, in his way, all the stately deportment of sovereignty. He had twenty-four children, and at each of their christenings he appeared, dressed in his original wedding-robes. These christenings were celebrated with no small parade. Twelve young handmaidens were always present, as part of the family retinue, and for the purpose of waiting on the numerous guests, who a.s.sembled to witness the ceremony, or partake of the subsequent festivities. Besides Will's Gipsy a.s.sociates, several of the neighbouring farmers and lairds, with whom he was on terms of friendly intercourse, (among others, the Murrays, of Cherry-trees,) used to attend these christenings.--_Blackwood's Magazine._--ED.

"He was succeeded by his eldest son William, one of the cleverest fellows upon the Border. For agility of person, and dexterity in every athletic exercise, he had rarely met with a compet.i.tor. He had a younger brother impressed, when almost a boy. He deserted from his s.h.i.+p, in India; enlisted as a soldier, and, by dint of merit, acquired a commission in a regular regiment of foot, and died a lieutenant, within these thirty years, at London. He was an officer under Governor Wall, at Goree, when he committed the crime for which he suffered, twenty years after, in England.

"It was the present William Faa that the 'Earl of h.e.l.l' contended with; not for sovereignty, but to revenge some ancient animosity.[165] His lords.h.i.+p lives at New Coldstream, and was the only person in Berwicks.h.i.+re that durst encounter, in single combat, the renowned Bully-More. Young fought three successive battles with Faa, and one desperate engagement with More, midway between Dunse and Coldstream; and was defeated in all of them. He is a younger son of William Young, of Yetholm, the cotemporary chieftain of old William Faa. It was still a younger brother that migrated to Kelso, where he supported a good character till he died. Charles Young, the eldest brother, is still alive, and chief of the name. The following anecdote of him will serve to establish his activity.

[165] This is in contradiction to the a.s.sertion, in Blackwood's Magazine, that, on the death of his father, a sort of civil war broke out among the Yetholm Gipsies; and that the usurper of the regal office was dispossessed, after a battle, by the subjects who adhered to the legitimate heir.--ED.

"Mr. Walker, of Thirkstane, the only residing heritor in Yetholm parish, missed a valuable mare, upon a Sunday morning. After many fruitless enquiries, at the adjacent kirks and neighbourhood, he dispatched a servant for Charles, in the evening. He privately communicated to him his loss, and added, that he was fully persuaded he could be the means of recovering the mare. Charles boldly answered, 'If she was betwixt the Tyne and the Forth, she should be restored.' On the Thursday after, at sunrise, the mare was found standing at the stable door, much jaded, and very warm.

"When the Kirk-Yetholm families differed among themselves, (and terrible conflicts at times they had,) this same Mr. Walker was often chosen sole arbitrator, to decide their differences. He has often been locked up in their houses for twenty-four hours together, but carefully concealed their secrets.[166]

[166] There would appear to be something remarkable in the position which this Mr. Walker held with the Gipsies. I know, from the best of authority, that most of the people living in and about Yetholm are Gipsies, settled or unsettled, civilized or uncivilized, educated or uneducated; and of one in particular, who went under the t.i.tle of "Lord Mayor of Yetholm." He is now dead. The above mentioned Mr.

Walker was probably a relation of Dr. Walker, mentioned by Baillie Smith, as the baron-baillie of Yetholm. I notice in Blackwood's Magazine, that one William Walker, a Gipsy, in company with various Yetholm Gipsies, was indicted at Jedburgh, in 1714, for fire-raising, but was acquitted. The Walkers alluded to in the text are very probably of the same family, settled, and raised in the world. As I have just said, most of the people in and about Yetholm are Gipsies.

Gipsydom has even eaten its way in among the population round about Yetholm. The Rev. Mr. Baird, in conducting the Scottish Church Mission among the _travelling_ Gipsies, hailing from Yetholm, doubtless encountered many of them incog. But all this will be better understood by the reader after he peruses the Disquisition on the Gipsies.--ED.

"The Yetholm Tinklers keep up an intercourse with their friends at Horncliff, Spittal, Rothbury, Hexam, and Harbottle. They go frequently to Newcastle, and even to Staffords.h.i.+re, for earthenware, and the whole family embark in every expedition.

"I was at school with most of the present generation of Tinklers. I mean the males; for, to speak truth, I never heard of a female Gipsy being educated at all.

"None of this colony have been either impeached or tried for a crime for fifty years past. Two Tinklers have been executed at Jedburgh, in my remembrance, named Keith and Clark, for murder and horse-stealing. They were strangers, from a distance."

When I visited Yetholm, I fell in with a gentleman who resided at that time in Town-Yetholm. I chanced to mention to him that I was sure all the Gipsies had a method of their own in handling the cudgel, but he would not believe it. At my request, he took me into some of their houses, and, observing an old, rusty sword lying upon the joists of an apartment in which we were sitting, I took it down, and, under pretence of handling it, in their fas.h.i.+on, gave some of the guards of the Hungarian sword-exercise. An old Gipsy, of the name of Blyth, shook his head, and observed: "Ay, that is an art easily carried about with you; it may be of service to you some day." My friend was then convinced of his mistake.

William Faa, when I was in his house, showed me the mark of a stroke of a sword on his right wrist, by which he had nearly lost his hand. With others of his clan, he had been engaged in a smuggling speculation, on the coast of Northumberland, when they were overtaken by a party of dragoons, one of whom singled out and attempted to take Faa prisoner.

William was armed with a stick only, but, with his stick in his dexterous hand, he, for a long time, set the dragoon, with all his arms, at defiance. The horseman, now galloping round and round him, attempting to capture him, became exasperated at the resistance of a man on foot, armed with a cudgel only, and struck with such vigour that the cudgel became shattered, and cut in pieces, till nothing but a few inches of it remained. Still holding up the stump, to meet the stroke of his antagonist's sword, William was cut to the bone, and compelled to yield himself a prisoner. A person, present at the scuffle, informed me that the only remark the brave Tinkler made to the dragoon was, "Ye've spoiled a good fiddler."

William Faa, the lineal descendant of John Faw, "Lord and Earl of Little Egypt," when I saw him, appeared about sixty years of age, and was tall and genteel-looking, with grey hair, and dark eyes. He is the individual who fought the three battles with Young, between Dunse and Coldstream.

The following notice of his death I have extracted from the "Scotsman"

newspaper, of the 20th October, 1847:

"A LAMENT FOR WILL FAA,

"The Deceased King of Little Egypt.

"The daisy has faded, the yellow leaf drops; The cold sky looks grey o'er the shrivelled tree-tops; And many around us, since Summer's glad birth, Have dropt, like the old leaves, into the cold earth.

And one worth remembering hath gone to the home Where the king and the kaiser must both at last come, The King of the Gipsies--the last of a name[167]

Which in Scotland's old story is rung on by fame.

The cold clod ne'er pressed down a manlier breast Than that of the old man now gone to his rest.

"It is meet we remember him; never again Will such foot as old Will's kick a ball o'er the plain, Or such hand as his, warm with the warmth of the soul, Bid us welcome to Yetholm, to bicker and bowl.

Oh, the voice that could make the air tremble and ring With the great-hearted gladness becoming a king, Is silent, is silent; oh, wail for the day When Death took the Border King, brave Willie Faa.

"No dark Jeddart prison e'er closed upon him, The last lord of Egypt ne'er wore gyve on limb.

Though his grey locks were crownless, the light of his eye Was kingly--his bearing majestic and high.

Though his hand held no sceptre, the stranger can tell That the full bowl of welcome became it as well; The fisher or rambler, by river or brae, Ne'er from old Willie's hallan went empty away.

"In the old house of Yetholm we've sat at the board, The guest, highly honoured, of Egypt's old lord, And mark'd his eye glisten as oft as he told Of his feats on the Border, his prowess of old.

It is meet, when that dark eye in death hath grown dim, That we sing a last strain in remembrance of him.

The fame of the Gipsy hath faded away With the breath from the brave heart of gallant Will Faa."

[167] Will Faa had a brother, a house-carpenter, in New York, who survived him a few years. He was considered a fine old man by those who knew him. He left a family in an humble, but respectable, way of doing. The Scottish Gipsy throne was occupied by another family of Gipsies, in consequence of this family being "forth of Scotland."

There are a great many Faas, under one name or other, scattered over the world.--ED.

CHAPTER VIII.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE CEREMONIES.

The Gipsies in Scotland are all married at a very early age. I do not recollect ever having seen or heard of them, male or female, being unmarried, after they were twenty years old. There are few instances of b.a.s.t.a.r.d children among them; indeed, they declare that their children are all born in wedlock.[168] I know, however, of one instance to the contrary; and of the Gipsy being dreadfully punished for seducing a young girl of his own tribe.

[168] There is one word in the Gipsy language to which is attached more importance than to any other thing whatever--_Lacha_--the corporeal chast.i.ty of woman; the loss of which she is, from childhood, taught to dread. To ensure its preservation, the mother will have occasion to the _Dicle_--a kind of drapery which she ties around the daughter; and which is never removed, but continually inspected, till the day of marriage; but not for fear of the "stranger" or the "white blood." A girl is generally betrothed at fourteen, and never married till two years afterward. Betrothal is invariable. But the parties are never permitted, previous to marriage, to have any intimate a.s.sociations together.--_Borrow on the Spanish Gipsies._--ED.

The brother of the female, who was pregnant, took upon himself the task of chastising the offender. With a knife in his hand, and at the dead hour of night, he went to the house of the seducer. The first thing he did was deliberately to sharpen his knife upon the stone posts of the door of the man's house; and then, in a gentle manner, tap at the door, to bring out his victim. The unsuspecting man came to the door, in his s.h.i.+rt, to see what was wanted; but the salutation he received was the knife thrust into his body, and the stabs repeated several times. The avenger of his sister's wrongs fled for a short while; the wounded Tinkler recovered, and, to repair the injury he had done, made the girl his wife. The occurrence took place in Mid-Lothian, about twenty years ago. The name of the woman was Baillie, and her husband, Tait.

I have not been able to discover any peculiarity in the manner of Gipsy courts.h.i.+ps, except that a man, above sixty years of age, affirmed to me that it was the universal custom, among the tribe, not to give away in marriage the younger daughter before the elder. In order to have this information confirmed, I enquired of a female, herself one of eleven sisters,[169] if this custom really existed among her people. She was, at first, averse, evidently from fear, to answer my question directly, and even wished to conceal her descent. But, at last, seeing nothing to apprehend from speaking more freely, she said such was once the custom; and that it had been the cause of many unhappy marriages. She said she had often heard the old people speaking about the law of not allowing the younger sister to be married before the elder. She, however, would not admit of the existence of the custom at the present day, but appeared quite well acquainted with it, and could have informed me fully of it, had she been disposed to speak on the subject.

[169] A GIPSY MULTIPLICATION TABLE.

+-------------+-------+----------+--+ Births Mar- Births of of Children. riages. Grand- children. 1 +-------------+-------+----------+--+--+ 1822, Oct. 1. 1842 1843, Jul. 1 2 +--+--+ 1824, Jan. 1. 1844 1844, Oct. 1 1 3 +--+--+ 1825, Apl. 1. 1845 1846, Jan. 1 1 1 4 +--+--+ 1826, Jul. 1. 1846 1847, Ap. 1 1 1 1 5 +--+--+ 1827, Oct. 1. 1847 1848, Jul 1 1 1 1 1 6 +--+--+ 1829, Jan. 1. 1849 1849, Oct. 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 +--+--+ 1830, Apl. 1. 1850 1851, Jan. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 +--+--+ 1831, Jul. 1. 1851 1852, Ap. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 +--+--+ 1832, Oct. 1. 1852 1853, Jul. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 +--+--+ 1834, Jan. 1. 1854 1854, Oct. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 +--+--+ 1835, Apl. 1. 1855 1856, Jan. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 +--+ 1836, Jul. 1. 1856 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Total.

+-------------+-------+----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-----+ 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 78 +-------------+-------+----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-----+