FREEBOOTER JOHN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1940, Page 6

FREEBOOTER JOHN

TERROR TO ENGLISHMEN. He is the hero of a ballad, and his story has been told in books sold from door to door for generations. It. would never do to take his life from these tales. According to them he lived at Giltnock Hall in Westmoreland, feasting eight score ruffians every day. Summoned to Edinburgh by the king who pretended he was to confer an honour on this scallywag, he was captured and denounced a traitor. A desperate fight ensued, the streets of the city (so says the ballad) running red with blood. The truth seems to be that John Armstrong—Freebooter John —was a Scotsman, and proud of it, and that whatever terror he put in the hearts of Englishmen, he rarely laid a finger on a brother Scot. Fie seems to have lived at Hollows near Langholm, and to have had a stronghold there which no foe could enter. With two dozen boon companions, all daring lads, he fell on any Englishman he could find, growing rich, and enjoying life.

At last James the Fifth of Scotland met his Parliament at Edinburgh to consider ways and means of destroying the hornets' nest, and it was determined to put a stop to all the thieving and murdering once and for all. Apparently Freebooter Armstrong heard of this, and taking the king for a bigger man than he was, he and his followers rode boldly into Edinburgh and gave themselves up. He offered to stand by the king, pledging himself and his friends to the king's service, but James the Fifth considered his offer a piece of impudence. Condemning the lot, he saw them all hanging by the neck on the highroad to Langholm. Says the old ballad: