Kinmont Willie Armstrong

William Armstrong of Kinmont or Kinmont Willie was a border reiver and outlaw active in the Anglo-Scottish Border country in the last decades of the 16th century.

Armstrong was captured by the forces of the English Warden of the West March in violation of a truce day in 1596, and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle. Walter Scott of Buccleuch ("the Bold Buccleuch"), keeper of Liddesdale on whose land the arrest had been made, protested to the English Warden, Sir Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Scrope of Bolton. When Scrope refused to release Armstrong, Buccleuch led a party of men on a daring raid into England and broke Armstrong out of the castle.

Kinmont Willie Armstrong was never recaptured. Legend supposes he died in his bed of old age, sometime between 1608 and 1611.

The story of the raid on Carlisle Castle is told in the ballad "Kinmont Willie" (Child No. 186).

References

*Fraser, George MacDonald. "The Steel Bonnets: the Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers." London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1971. ISBN 0-21465-3080

External links

* [http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/BorderReivers.htm Border Reivers at Historic UK]
* [http://www.cowdenknowes.com/kinmont.htm Kinmont Willie at Cowdenknowes.com]
* [http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/BalladofKinmontWillie.htm Ballad of Kinmont Willie]