Mangerton Tower
Mangerton Tower is a ruined Scottish tower castle house formerly belonging to the Armstrong family.
Mangerton Tower is at Mangerton in Newcastleton or Castleton parish in Roxburghshire, close to the border between England and Scotland, on the banks of the Liddel Water.
History
The tower was burnt by the English commander Ralph Eure in 1543 in revenge for fire raising in Tynedale.[1] Hector Armstrong murdered Bartye Young, whose friend had guided Eure to Mangerton.[2]
In March 1569
In 1592 the Laird of Mangerton had helped the rebel
The Armstrongs of Whithaugh crossed the English border on 8 June 1597 and attacked travellers on Turnlippet Moor who were going to Newcastle.[7] In September 1601 the English border warden Lord Scrope "laid waste" to Mangerton in retaliation for border raids in the aftermath of the murder of Sir John Carmichael.[8] Scrope wrote to James VI to justify capturing 16 nororious "rievers and spoilers" at the "stone house of Mangerton".[9]
Only a part of the ground floor of Mangerton Tower remains. A stone panel has a coat of arms and the date 1563, with the initials "SA" and "E", or 1583 with "SA" and "FF".[10]
Armstrong family
Mungo Armstrong became a spy for the English border officer Thomas Wharton. In December 1540 he was at Hermitage Castle and received a copy of a ballad from Edinburgh. He brought it to Carlisle for Wharton, letting the Mayor of Carlisle, John Thomson, make a copy of it.[12]
In 1541 Archibald Armstrong, the young laird of Mangerton, with his servant John Grey, who was blind in one eye, went into England with others and burnt the corn of William Carnaby at Halton.[13]
An English border official Thomas Musgrave listed many members of the Armstrong families of Mangerton, Whithaugh, and Langholm, and their relations in 1583. They had kin on both sides of the border.[14]
The Laird of Mangerton and Christie Armstrong of Barngleis were prisoners in Edinburgh Castle in October 1588. In July 1591 the Laird was ordered to surrender John Jokke Armstrong as a pledgee for the "gang of Mangertoun".[15]
The court jester to James VI and I, Archibald Armstrong, was a relative of the Mangerton family. In 1617 Archibald Armstrong obtained a royal pension of £50 yearly for his Scottish kinsman, John of the Syde, an Armstrong from Mangerton.[16]
References
- ^ State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 (London, 1836), p. 294.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 1 (London, 1883), no. 104.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 636 no. 1032.
- ^ R. B. Armstrong, PSAS (1869), p. 236.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 786.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1894), no. 784.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 7 (London, 1899), pp. 250–1.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 2 (London, 1894), no. 1422.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 11 (Dublin, 1906), p.398.
- ^ R. B. Armstrong, PSAS (1869), p. 234.
- ^ Aeneas Mackay, Historie and cronicles of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 334–5
- ^ State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 (London, 1836), pp. 144–5.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 139.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1894), pp. 120–7 no. 197.
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1585–1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), pp. 325, 649.
- ^ HMC Report on the Manuscripts of Earls of Mar and Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 76.