Prof. John Veitch. Published 1893.
Vol II. Chapter 1.
One of the last acts of James VI., before he left for England, was to visit in person the district of Upper Tweeddale, with a view to stanch the bloody feud which for some centuries had subsisted between the lairds of Drummelzier and Dawyck. This feud between the Tweedies and the Veitches is a curious illustration of the old Border life, and needs a few sentences of narrative. The principal estate of the Veitches - that of Dawyck - was bounded on the west or upper side of the Tweed by that of Drummelzier, the property of the Tweedies from the time that a man of that name succeeded, in the fourteenth century, to Laurence Fraser or Frisel of Drummelzier, apparently marrying his daughter. Tweedie, hitherto utterly unnoticed in documents, now became a person of consequence. Dawyck and Drummelzier were both early baronies, and thus on a footing. Both names had cadets, allies, and retainers.
The principal estates of the two families on Tweedside were of about equal value, but the Veitches had other lands besides in Peebles and Selkirk shires. The Veitches owned estates, what now would be regarded as considerable farms, from Sheriff Hall, near Dalkeith, on a line southwards, including Kingside, Courhope, Stewarton, and Lyne; and nearly opposite Lyne, on the Tweed, was the principal property of Dawyck. They had also as early as 1404 the principal part of the barony of Manor. In Tweedsmuir they had Glenbreck; and down the Tweed and up the Quair they had Fechan and The Glen. In Selkirkshire they had Corslee (Crosslee), North Syntoun, Clerklands, and Bowhill. The Laird of Dawyck had thus a large backing of followers, and at need could hold his own. The Tweedies had, besides Drummelzier, cadets in Dreva and other places, and they had allies in the Crichtons of Cardon and in Porteous of Hawkshaw. Latterly they had Chapelhope on the Loch of the Lowes. The estate of Barns was immediately to the east of Dawyck, lower down the river. But it was never a barony, and the land had thus no baronial rights. Curiously enough, there was for some generations a feud between the Veitches and their neighbours, the Tweedies, on the west; while there is not the slightest indication that there occurred even one conflict between the Burnets and the Veitches.
The Tweedies were reputed turbulent and aggressive, and as in the habit of levying toll or mail on travellers through Upper Tweeddale. Among the persons 'delaittit of the slaughter, of David Riccio', 19th March 1565-66, are 'William Twedy of Drummelzeare, Adame Twedy of Dreva, Johne Brown of Cultirmains.' It is probable that this old blood-feud arose from some early deed of slaughter on the part either of Tweedy or Veitch. This was quite fitted to leave its deadly trail on the generations of the families. Some early intermarriages had taken place between the Burnets and the Veitches, and so tended to social alliance. In the fifteenth century, John Burnet of Barns married Sybilla Veitch of the family of Dawyck. She died between 1495 and 1497. She is buried with her husband, according to his will, under the east oriel window of St Gordian's Church, now part of the green mounds that mark the site of the ancient kirk. There, in the sacred enclosure, many of the old lairds and ladies of Manor and Tweed are lying; and the old life, the old feuds, and the old loves are all alike hushed in the sough of the passing burn, and covered by the greenery of graves, whose occupants no one can now distinguish.
The son of John Burnet, by a second wife, Mariot Inglis, of the family of Murdieston and Manor, married Elizabeth Veitch of the house of Dawyck, and their grandson was William Burnet, locally known as 'the Hoolet of Barns.' Contemporary with 'the Hoolet' was William Veitch, laird, and known as 'the Deil' of Dawyck, who lived nearly all through the sixteenth century. Both were men of immense stature, enormous physical strength, and undaunted courage. They lived to a great old age. 'The Hoolet ' is credited with one hundred and seven years. They were relations by blood, and constant allies in feuds and raids. 'The Hoolet' got his name because he was supposed to see as well in the mirk night as in the daylight. 'The Deil ' got his sobriquet because it was believed that no one ever rose up from under his sword -stroke. The two were often together in the 'Hot-Trod,' for their estates and those of their neighbours in Peeblesshire were frequently visited and harried by the Southern and even nearer marauders. And they had their privilege of the Commissioners of England and Scotland in 1398, when it was ordained and accorded 'that all manner of men of baith rewms sal hafe fredome to follow their gudes that beis stollen or restit frae thaim, with hunde and horne, out of the ta rewme into the toyir, at their lyking, or in quhat gudely manner to them byste.' Or as it is more picturesquely put in the words of the speaker in The Black Dwarf: 'Just put a lighted peat on the end of a spear, or hay-fork, or siclike, and blaw a horn, and cry the gathering-word, and then it's lawful to follow gear into England, and recover it by the strong hand, or to take gear frae some other Englishman, providing ye lift nae mair than's been lifted frae you. That's the auld Border law, made at Dundrennan in the days of the Black Douglas.'
Clearly enough the relationship between the Veitches and the Burnets - their neighbours on the east - was that of close friendship through the centuries. They had had foes on the west in those of the name of Tweedy, Crichton, and Porteous. The Veitches had usually for their allies besides the Burnets, Geddes of Rachan, a very old family, with which they had intermarried. It is now extinct, but it gave us, in the last century, the cultured Cambridge scholar - prematurely cut off - James Geddes, the author of An Essay on the Composition and Manner of Writing of the Ancients, particularly Plato. They had also for allies occasionally the Lord Fleming of Biggar and Cumbernauld, as is witnessed by a bond of man-rent between William Veitch and the Lord Fleming (22nd November 1531).
This feud between Dawyck and Drummelzier culminated in 1590 in a very deliberate and cruel murder. William Veitch, 'the Deil of Dawyck,' had a son, Patrick. This lad was in Peebles on some sort of business on a day in June 1590. He had to return home in the afternoon, riding, through the defile of the Tweed, where Neidpath Castle stands. The Tweedies were in the town of Peebles on the same dry. Young Veitch was 'perceived' there by James Tweedy of Drummelzier. The Tweedies were in force, there being no less than six of them, and with them two Crichtons and one Porteous (of Hawkshaw), their allies. They watched the youth on the road home, and made a plot to waylay him. One section of the party got in front of him behind Neidpath Castle, and the other section lurked on the road nearer Peebles. As soon as Veitch was enclosed between the two divisions, in the narrow defile by the river, they set on him, and in a most cowardly manner, - nine to one, as in the ballad of The Dowie Dens, - 'with swords and pistolettes, cruellie and unmercifullie slew him, upon set purpose, auld feid, and forethought.' The Tweedies were, wonderful to relate, actually put in prison in Edinburgh for the deed.
Then followed, as usual, an interminable process of citations and sureties to 'satisfie parties,' of whom Scott of Buccleuch was one for the Tweedies. They had probably been helpful to him in their line. But the perpetrators of this atrocity were never brought to punishment by the law. Meanwhile the Veitches, probably anticipating the futile results of the law proceedings, took the matter into their own hand. Four days after the slaughter of Patrick Veitch - on the 20th June - John Tweedy, Tutor of Drummelzier, one of the band of the conspiring assassins, was walking on the High Street of Edinburgh. He was met by John Veitch, 'apperand of North Syntoun' (in Selkirkshire), and Andrew Veitch, brother of the Laird of Courhope, an estate and tower high up on the green slopes of the Harehope Hills. Some hot words passed about the fate of Patrick Veitch. The Veitch, younger of Syntoun, drew his sword, and then and there, after a sharp conflict, fatally cut down the Tutor of Drummelzier. This gave rise of course to further recrimination in a series of charges and counter-charges.
The king had imagined that matters were made up; but it was not so. At his Court at Greenwich in 1611 he was disturbed by rumours of continued broils between these two families. He was old enough to remember people speak of the shuddering sensation which the news of another fatal hand-to-hand encounter between Dawyck and Drummelzier, arising out of the slaughter of Patrick Veitch, or perhaps from some earlier feud, had created at the Scottish Court, even in those times of atrocious deeds. On a morning in early summer the two lairds, according to the tradition, had met by chance on the haugh of the Tweed. Possibly from the tradition it was the old laird of Dawyck, the father of the murdered boy. They were alone when they confronted each other. The memories of centuries of mutual violence and mutual deeds of blood were quickened in their hearts, and that strange savage feeling of blood-atonement seemed to thrill in both. They agreed to settle the strife of centuries then and there. And tradition tells us that, as the birds waked the June morn, Drummelzier was found dead beside a bush by the river, and the blood had stained the white blossoms of the hawthorn-spray. Still the feud was carried on by son and son. And the king, in March 1611, in a proclamation, calls upon Lord Dunfermline and the other lords of the Privy Council to take steps to suppress this strife. The document is a curious one, and, as it has not been published before, I give it entire:
JAMES R.,I do not know whether we should most sympathise with the 'great pains in person' of the king, or most admire the quiet assumption of the moral principle of the fair balance of injuries, which the power of righteousness in the world, working through the centuries, had contrived to adjust between the combatants.
'Right trustie and right weel-beloved Cousengills and Counsellors, We Greet you weel: whereas we understand, that the deadly Feid betwixt Veitches and Tweedies is as yet unreconciled, and our peace keept betwixt them only by the Means of Renewing of Assurances from Time to Time: But since we came so far, by great Pains in our Person, endureing our Stay there, and by Our continual Direction sensyne, suppressed that Monster within that Kingdom, so as wee do hardly think that there be any One Feid except this in all that Kingdome unreconciled; and the Wrongs and Mischiefs done by either of them, as We understand, to others, being in such a Proportion of a Compensation as neither Party can either boast of advantage, or otherways think himself too much behind. THEREFORE, our Pleasure and Will is that you will call before you the Principalls of either Surname, and then take such Course for Removing of the Feid and Reconcileing, as you have been accustomed to do in the like cases. And whosoever shall Disobey your Command and Direction, you shall committ them prisoners, and certifie Us thereof, to the Effect we may return unto you Our further Pleasure and Will therein; and so We bid you fareweell:
From our Court at Greenwich, the Tenth of March, 1611. To our right trustie and right weel-beloved cousins and counsellors, the Earle of Dunfermline, Lord Chancellor, and remanent Lords, and others of Our Privy Councill in Our Kingdom of Scotland.'
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