HOBBIE NOBLE
On the English Scottish Border in the reiving times, the times that the Border Reivers held sway over all authority, national identity was often dismissed. Joint raids by the forces of Scots and English, all animosity to each other put aside for a while, resulted in a lucrative pay-off for the clans and families involved in the grand theft of cattle and sheep. The Border country was beset with the intrigues of the Reivers; local law enforcement on both sides of the Border at a loss, reticent to lay the blame for crime at anyone door, careful of reprisal or lasting feud.
Hobbie Noble had distinguished himself by playing a prominent part in effecting the escape of the Armstrong, Jock o’ the Syde, from Newcastle jail. Hobbie was an Englishman, born in Cumbria, but his misdeeds were many, and he was forced to flee to Scotland to escape the law. There, in Scotland, he attached himself to the Armstrongs, who were the most active and troublesome of all the reiving families.
The story of Hobbie Noble of the Crew, one of the English Border Reivers of somewhat dubious reknown, is one such example of Scots and English coming together. He would aid the Armstrongs of Liddesdale, a Scottish Border clan, in their hour of need, yet eventually be betrayed by one of their own.
Hobbie, however, avoided joining in with the Armstrong’s many raids into England for fear of being caught by the authorities who were well aware of his new connections and were even more anxious now to apprehend him.
Hobbie was from Bewcastle in what was known in his time as the Waste of north Cumberland; his home was Crew Castle. Little of what would once have been a formidable tower remains today; the earthworks, however, easily recognised, bear testimony to a place of formidable strength: the home of a family of prominence and importance in the region. The Waste is still there to this day. It is a harsh and unforgiving country yet delights in little pockets of sylvan beauty which are a delight to the eyes.
Thus life continued for some time until a party of Armstrongs, led by one Sim o’ the Mains, were tempted by the reward the English offered for the apprehension and delivery to them of Hobbie.
Persuaded beyond his better judgement, Hobbie agreed to join the group in a raid into England. Having returned from England many times unscathed, he felt reasonably safe with his five companions.
Hobbie spent many years raiding in Tynedale (Northumberland) and even parts of his homeland, to the south of his Cumberland fortress. It would seem that allegiance to his countrymen was of little concern to a man bent on raiding wherever the opportunity presented itself. The product of theft, the ‘reive’, meant more to Hobbie than allegiance to his own countrymen, his own people.
Eventually they disowned him as they tired of the retribution exacted on them by the surnames (families) he had raided within his own country and the clans to the north of the Border. Their lives were dominated by the relentless raids from Tynedale, other parts of Cumberland, and southern Scotland which, with regular monotony, raided the homesteads of the folk of Bewcastledale.
He was much prized by the English West March Warden, the law in Cumberland. Doubtless there were many crimes laid at his door in which he had taken no part.
Hobbie fled to Liddesdale in the Scottish Borders were he was well received by the Laird of Mangerton, head of the Armstrongs. Anyone on run from the law, irrespective of nationality, was welcomed by the Armstrongs of Liddesdale.
When Jock Armstrong of the ‘Side’, a stalwart and leading member of the Scottish clan was captured and thrown into gaol in Newcastle to await a fate which would inevitably see him dangle at the end of a rope, Hobbie was a major force in planning and achieving his rescue. He was lauded by the Armstrongs of Mangerton for the sterling part he played in the rescue of Jock but there were other Armstrongs, within Scottish Liddesdale, who resented the popularity of the Englishman.
Hobbie is asked to lead a raid into England by the Armstrongs of the Mains
Sim Armstrong was Laird of the Mains, today a peaceful farm in Liddesdale, but in the days of the Border Reivers, the most dangerous valley in the whole of Europe. Sim had grown to hate the great English Reiver whilst the English Warden was bent on wresting Hobbie from the Scottish Border lands and bringing him to account for his crimes in England. Sim and the Warden made a deal whereby, in return for English gold, Sim would betray Hobbie into the Warden’s hands. Accordingly, on the pretext that Hobbie knew the English ground better than he did, Sim persuaded Hobbie to lead a raid south of the Border into England. The cattle and sheep were fat and ripe for the picking.
To the Land-Sergeant at Askerton Castle, who was responsible to the Warden of the West March for the apprehension of miscreants, the capture of Hobbie would be a prize indeed, and he willingly came to an arrangement with Sim which would be to their mutual advantage.
So one day, they guided Hobbie over the wastes along unfrequented paths well known to them, and he felt in no way endangered. But a message had been passed to the Land-Sergeant: “The deer you have hunted so long is in Bewcastle waste this day.”
Hobbie led the Armstrongs of the Mains into England but at the same time Sim Armstrong sent word to the English Keeper of Askerton that Hobbie was back on English ground. Hobbie and the Armstrongs had rested overnight before their final assault on their target. At the first light of the following day Hobbie woke to see the English confronting him. He was not unduly concerned because he knew the ground right well. His fertile mind instantly recognised the path in which he and the Armstrongs could evade any confrontation. But it was not to be. The Armstrongs at his back suddenly voiced their allegiance to the English and Hobbie was betrayed for gold.
In all haste, the Land-Sergeant assembled a body of horsemen to accompany him, and they road out from the confines of Askerton Castle.
It was night, and Hobbie, unaware of his danger, was asleep in Foulbogshiel. And there, guided by the treacherous Sim, Hobbie was taken.
Hobbie was bound with his own bow-string and led ignominiously to Carlisle and thrown in the dark damp cells of Carlisle castle. He was told he would hang next day unless he would confess to stealing Peter of Winfield’s horse, a crime that had hung over his head for some time. There is some doubt that Hobbie was involved, that the charge was trumped up by the English to see an end to the great English Border Reiver. He denied the allegation and prepared himself for death. Next morning he was hanged. There was a lot of sympathy in the watching crowd for the man who had risked life and limb to rescue Jock of the ‘Side’ from the Black Tower of Newcastle.
Next morning, they hanged Hobbie from the gallows at Harraby,
Back in Liddesdale, news of the affair reached the Armstrong chief at Mangerton. For bringing such dire disgrace to the Armstrongs, the Laird, exacted upon Sim and his companions the most severe punishment. They were hounded back across into England, where they themselves we captured by the same Land-Sergeant. They too were taken to Carlisle, and they, too, met the same fate as Hobbie on the gallows on Horraby hill.
BEWCASTLE STONE
The remains of Askerton Castle lies about five miles south of Bewcastle, in Cumberland, on the Brampton road.
The site of the gallows at Harraby is close by the Border
Sir Walter Scott, avid lover of Scottish English Border history and eminent writer of the early nineteenth century gathered the story of Hobbie Noble and committed it to verse in his ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’.
Here are two particularly poignant verses from the ballad:
‘And fare thee weel , sweet Liddesdale, (weel = well)
Baith the hie land and the law;
Keep ye weel frae the traitor Mains,
For gould and gear he’ll sell ye a’ (goud = gold, a’ = all)
‘Yet wad I rather be ca’d Hobbie Noble, ( wad = would, ca’d = called)
In Carlisle , where he suffers for his fau’t, (fau’t = fault)
Than I’d be ca’d the traitor Mains,
That eats and drinks of the meal and maut’. ( maut = malt)
English Gold was no benefit to Sim of the Mains
When the Laird of Mangerton, head of the Armstrongs, heard of Hobbie’s fate and Sim’s involvement, he was furious. Normally, as Hobbie was executed by the English, his retribution would have been aimed against the English families who dared to steal in his domain, Liddesdale or its surrounds. For once he directed his wrath against his own. He planned a great reprisal against the Armstrongs of Mains even though they were a sect of the clan. Sim fled to England but within two months, thanks to intelligence furnished to the English by Mangerton, Sim of the Mains also dangled at the end of a rope on Harrabee Hill, the killing ground of Carlisle. No tears were wept by a crowd who were pleased that he had got his come-uppance for the betrayal of Hobbie Noble of the Crew.
NB There are several different spellings of Harraby.
Perhaps someone knows the exact location of Foulbogsheil. Perhaps it has been given a more acceptable name!
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