The story of Jean Watson and King William of Orange.

The feisty Ulster-Scots widow from Donaghadee who walked all the way to the Boyne to retrieve what was hers and came face to face with the King.

William III lands at Carrickfergus castle (click to enlarge)

Article © by Jason Burke

See full article at jasonburkehistory.com

King William III landed at Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690 with a fleet of around 300 vessels.  Having mustered an army of 36,000 men, this was the largest troop that Ireland had ever seen and is likely to ever see.  A witness to the landing observed, "the lough between this and Carrickfergus seems like a wood, there being no less than seven hundred sail of ships in it… I cannot think that any army of Christendom hath the like.". The Williamite army proceeded south in order to confront James II who by this stage was perched on a strategic position at the River Boyne near Drogheda.  William’s journey took him to Belfast where he stayed at the old Belfast Castle before leaving again on 17 June 1690.  It is reported that he stopped briefly at the site of the modern ‘King William’s Park’ (Lisburn Road, Belfast) before making another stop at Malone due to a rain storm. 

36,000 troops and several hundred ships was a formidable force by any standards, it was sure to crush most enemies in its path, most, that is, except for one audacious Ulsterwoman…

Border Reivers; The ancestors of many Ulster Scots

Anyone who lives in Ulster will be very familiar with surnames such as Armstrong, Irving, Murray, Kerr, Maxwell, Johnstone, Carruthers, Potts, Elliott, Burns, Douglas, Bell, Crozier, Scott & Graham. These are all Border Reiver family names.

Many Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish) are descended from these Border Reivers;  lawless clans from the border between Scotland & England, where a lifestyle of raiding and marauding was the only way to survive. They started off as subsistence farmers but owing to their geographical position they were frequently harassed by passing armies who, at the very least, would require provisioning, often without payment,  but who were more often hell bent on destroying everything before them and causing as much damage and misery as they could. Crops were destroyed, homesteads burnt and the people murdered or dispersed.

It is no coincidence that these people, having had their crops regularly destroyed and their livestock stolen, looked for other means of sustaining themselves and their families... They took to reiving.

Raiding parties in battle

a short excerpt from Born Fighting on the Reivers 

For over 400 years between the 13th & 17th centuries, warring families from both sides of the lawless border valleys would carry out deadly raids on each other. These skilled warrior horsemen would live a life of looting, arson, murder & rustling.  The life of the Border Reiver was not necessarily ruled by his allegiance to the English or Scottish Crowns, but more likely by his allegiance to a family surname. The history of the Border Reivers has many similarities to that of  the American Wild West. It produced its share of outlaws and broken men, corrupt officials, greed, misery and struggle for survival.

Reiver map of the Scottish - English border

Reiver re-enactors

In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. He immediately set about unifying the two countries and started by bringing the Reivers under control. Many Reiver families were faced with the choice of hanging or accept exile across the Irish sea to the wild badlands of Ulster as part of James' Plantation project to bring the Irish natives under control.

ballads of the Border Reivers

In Ulster the Border Reiver family names were found in particularly concentrated numbers in county Fermanagh. Are you descended from the Border Reivers? Have a look a this list of the major family names from the Border Reivers website.