Reiver Families

hroughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Border country was ravaged by lawless Reiver families in a vicious cycle of raid, reprisal and blood feud.

heir allegiance was first to the family (the Surname), not to the crown, whether English or Scottish.

ivided up into three marches on each side of the Border, each with its own warden, the crown made some attempt to control the volatile region. Strong points were castles and Pele towers, hundreds are still found, some even in use today.

uch overspill of families and intermarrying resulted in complex allegiances, and this site gives a general idea of where the main pockets of activity and families were situated.

isted below are some of the main Reiver families of the Borders
between 1500-1700.

f you have one of the names listed and have always suspected that your relatives were a
bunch of villains, then your worst fears could be confirmed!

Reivers Family Names
Archbold Armstrong Beattie Bell Burns Carleton Carlisle Carnaby Carrs Carruthers Chamberlain Charlton Collingwood Crichtons Crisp	Croziers Cuthbert Dacre Davidson Dixon Dodd Douglas Dunne Elliot Fenwick Forster Graham Gray Hall Hedley	Henderson Heron Hetherington Hume Irvine Irving Johnston Kerr Laidlaw Little Lowther Maxwell Milburn Musgrove Nixon	Noble Ogle Oliver Potts Pringle Radcliffe Reade Ridley Robson Routledge Rutherford Salkeld Scott Selby Shaftoe	Storey Simpson Tait Taylor Trotter Turnbull Wake Watson Wilson Woodrington Young