Part 5 (1/2)

James' subjects are commanded to aid in apprehending them, and in a.s.sisting Faw and his adherents to return home.

From all these circ.u.mstances, it appears that this John Faw, or two persons of the same name and distinction, succeeding each other, staid a long time in Scotland; and from him this kind of strolling people might receive the name of Faw Gang, which they still retain, as appears by Burn's Justice.

But the Scottish laws, after this time, were not less severe than those of Queen Elizabeth. By an Act pa.s.sed in 1609; ”Sorners, common thieves, commonly called Egyptians, were directed to pa.s.s forth of the kingdom, under pain of death, as common, notorious, and condemned thieves.”

Scottish Acts, I. 850.

SECTION VI.

The present State of the Gypsies in Scotland.

The energy and perseverance by which North Britons are distinguished, will be evinced throughout the pages of this section. A friend of the author, having been requested to make application at the Advocates' and the University Libraries, in the city of Edinburgh, for extracts from some foreign publications, was also desired to transmit with them what information could be obtained respecting the Gypsies in Scotland.

With a prompt.i.tude and zeal which characterises genuine philanthropy, a circular, containing four queries, was dispatched to the Sheriff of every county in that nation; soliciting through the medium of an official organ, all the intelligence which could be obtained on the subject. In consequence, returns have been made from nearly the whole of the s.h.i.+res, either by the Sheriff, or his subst.i.tute; generally addressed to George Miller, jun. Edinburgh; who has been a most effective coadjutor on this occasion.

From thirteen counties, the reports are, ”No Gypsies resident in them;”

some others give account of their only pa.s.sing through at times.

William Frazer Tytler, Sheriff of Invernesss.h.i.+re, writes as follows: ”The undertaking in which you are engaged, for the civilization of so lost a portion of mankind, merits every support. Its effects may be more generally and extensively useful in England, where those unfortunate people are extremely numerous. In Scotland, their number is comparatively small, and particularly in the county of Inverness.”

Alexander Moor, Sheriff Depute, of Aberdeens.h.i.+re, states: ”There are not any Gypsies who have a permanent residence in that Sheriffalty.

Occasionally vagrants, both single and in bands, appear in this part of the country; resorting to fairs, where they commit depredations on the unwary. Some of them are supposed to be connected with Gypsies in the southern part of the island.”

John Blair, Sheriff Subst.i.tute for the County of Bute, writes: ”I have to inform that the people generally known by the description of Gypsies, are not in use to come hither, unless abject, itinerant tinkers and braziers, generally from Ireland, may be accounted such. A few of them often visit us, and take up their abode for a time in different parts of the country, where people can be prevailed upon to give them the accommodation of an out-house or hut.”

They are understood to be illiterate, neither they, nor their children, who are often numerous, being able to read.

The distinguished northern Poet, Walter Scott, who is Sheriff of Selkirks.h.i.+re, has in a very obliging manner communicated the following statement:

”A set of people possessing the same erratic habits, and practising the trade of tinkers, are well known in the Borders; and have often fallen under the cognisance of the law. They are often called Gypsies, and pa.s.s through the county annually in small bands, with their carts and a.s.ses.

The men are tinkers, poachers, and thieves upon a small scale. They also sell crockery, deal in old rags, in eggs, in salt, in tobacco and such trifles; and manufacture horn into spoons, I believe most of those who come through Selkirks.h.i.+re, reside, during winter, in the villages of Sterncliff and Spittal, in Northumberland, and in that of Kirk Yetholm, Roxburghs.h.i.+re.

”Mr. Smith, the respectable Baillie {94} of Kelso, can give the most complete information concerning those who reside at Kirk Yetholm.

Formerly, I believe, they were much more desperate in their conduct than at present. But some of the most atrocious families have been extirpated, I allude particularly to the _Winters_, a Northumberland clan, who I fancy are all buried by this time.

”Mr. Reddell, Justice of Peace for Roxburghs.h.i.+re, with my a.s.sistance and concurrence, cleared this country of the last of them, about eight or nine years ago. They were thorough desperadoes, of the worst cla.s.s of vagabonds. Those who now travel through this country, give offence chiefly by poaching, and small thefts. They are divided into clans, the princ.i.p.al names being Faa, Baillie, Young, Ruthven, and Gordon.

”All of them are perfectly ignorant of religion, nor do their children receive any education. They marry and cohabit amongst each other, and are held in a sort of horror by the common people.

”I do not conceive them to be the proper Oriental Egyptian race, at least they are much intermingled with our own national out-laws and vagabonds.

They are said to keep up a communication with each other through Scotland, and to have some internal government and regulation as to the districts which each family travels.

”I cannot help again referring to Mr. Smith of Kelso, a gentleman who can give the most accurate information respecting the habits of those itinerants, as their winter-quarters of Yetholm, are upon an estate of which he has long had the management.”

It is very satisfactory to have received from an authority so respectably as that of William Smith, the Baillie of Kelso, above referred to, answers to the four queries of the circular; accompanied by his own interesting and appropriate ill.u.s.trations, from which extracts are made as follow, dated November, 1815.