The BATY's From Nunclose in Cumberland
The BATYS as a clan lived on the boarders of Cumberland and Scotland, they were Reivers, a gang of wild hard men who crossed the boarder to plunder, steal horses and cattle, blackmail, and even murder, from the 13th to the 17th century. The gang was made up of men from all walks of life from noble men to the lowest thief, they rode with other Reiver gangs some of them being the Archbolds, Armstrongs ,Bells, Burns, Carletons, Carlisles, Carnabys, Carrs, Carruthers, Chamberlains, Charltons, Collingwoods,Crisps, Crozier, Cuthburts, Dacres, Davisons, Dixons, Dodds, Douglas, Dunnes, Elliotts, Fenwicks, Forresters, Grahams, Grays, Halls, Hedleys, Hendersons. Herons, Hetheringtons, Hewarts, Humes, Irvines, Irvings, Johnstones, Kerrs, Laidlaws, Lauders, Lytles, Lowthers, Maxwells, Milburns, Musgroves, Nixons, Nobles, Ogles, Olivers, Potts, Pringles, Radcliffes, Reades, Ridleys, Robsons, Routledges, Rutherfords, Salkelds, Scotts, Selbys, Shaftoes, Storeys, Simpsons, Taits, Taylors, Telfords, Trotters, Turnbulls, Wakes, Watsons, Waughs, Wilsons, Woodringtons, and Youngs
.
"January 1582 Thomas Routledge of Todholes complained against Kinmont Joke Armstrong, of Canonbie, for the theft of 40 Kine, 20 sheep, and 1 horse, value 300 pounds sterling." Cumberland and Northumberland were the last two Counties of England to be civilized, it was not until the 17th century that the powers of the time decided these raids had to stop, so in order to make that happen they rounded up all the ring leaders and shipped them to Ireland.
My own line of BATYS farmed from c1500 to the 1850s at Nunclose, Hesket-in-the Forest, Cumberland, and to date I have not been able to establish wether or not they were involved in the Reiving raids, however Hesket was a sufferer at the hands of Willie Armstrong of Kinmont. The animosity with which Boarder freys were carried on at the beginning of the 17th Century, seems in considerable measure due to the strong feeling roused by the summary arrest of Willie Armstrong of Kinmont by the English Warden, and his release by Baccleugh which forms the subject of the "Ballad of Kinmont Willie". So strong was the feeling that it is said to have imperilled King James`s prospect of succession. Lord Scope writing to Cecil at the beginning of 1603 to justify the arrest says "This Kinmont since his release has spoiled the two town of Heskettes".
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hesket, was erected after 1530 when the plague was raging in the district. At that time it was customary to bury the dead in Carlisle but the Mayor of the city told the people of Hesket to carry their dead back to Walling-Stone and bury them there. He would then persuade the Bishop to have a Chapel built and a burial ground consecrated at Hesket. This was done - the chancel dates from 1537
.
My gt gt grandfather Thomas Baty left Nunclose farm in 1820, and arrived by post-chase in Liverpool where he immediately entered the ships chandlers and ships stores business, then in 1827 he set up business in Crown Chambers, Red Cross Street, Liverpool. with a Mr Gibson in the wine trade, this business was in our Baty family from then, until it ended with the death of my brother Timothy Thomas Ashe Baty in 1970.
Mediaeval Baty's
You can mail me here
Return to my Home Page