the stables and pillaging the town, they tore off the iron gratings from the windows and carried them away. In 1587 his capture and that of Robert Maxwell, natural brother to Lord Maxwell, formed the object of a royal expedition to Dumfries; but the freebooters succeeded in escaping at Tarras Moss. The conjecture of Sir Walter Scott that Armstrong originally held some connection with the Maxwells, the hereditary enemies of the Scotts of Buccleugh, is fully corroborated by the 'Register of the Privy Council,' which shows that in 1569 Lord Maxwell was his surety (ii. 44), while in 1590 he is mentioned as his landlord (iv. 796). On 14 Aug. of the same year, in a proclamation for the peace of the borders, it is declared that lands debateable within the West Marches shall be 'sett heritablie or in long takkis or rentale' to certain persons; Willie Armstrong among the number (iv. 799). The effect of this arrangement was only temporary. Armstrong, by his continued depredations, so tantalised the English borderers, that his capture came to be regarded as of prime importance. Accordingly, while returning in 1596 from a warden court held by the English and Scotch deputy wardens, he was pursued by 200 English borderers, brought before the English warden, and by him imprisoned in Carlisle Castle. Scott of Buccleugh, the Scotch warden, demanded his release of Lord Scrope, on the ground that the capture was made during a truce, and, receiving no satisfactory reply, arrived on a dark tempestuous night with two hundred men before the castle, and, undermining a postern gate, carried him off unperceived by the guards. Notwithstanding the bloodless character of the daring exploit, it almost led to a rupture between the two kingdoms, and was the subject of a considerable amount of correspondence, which is given in the State Papers. On account of it Buccleugh had for a time to go into ward in England [see Scott, Walter, first Lord of Buccleugh]. The ultimate fate of Armstrong is not known. The only further notice of him is in the list of border clans in 1597 as, along with Krystie Armstrong and John Shynbank, leader of a band of Armstrongs called 'Sandie's Bairns.' The tombstone of a William Armstrong, discovered in an old churchyard at Sark, is stated by W. Scott, who gives an engraving of it in 'Border Exploits' (1832), p. 329, to be that of Kinmont Willie. The tombstone was presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, but, as is pointed out in their 'Proceedings' (new series, viii. 234), the Armstrong to whom it refers, having died in 1658 at the age of 56, must be a different person from this noted border mosstrooper. The rescue of Armstrong from Carlisle Castle is the subject of the ballad of 'Kinmont Willie,' first printed by Sir Walter Scott in his 'Scottish Minstrelsy,' who states that it was preserved by tradition, but has been much mangled by reciters. It is also included in Ayton's 'Ballads of Scotland.'
[Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; Scot of Satchells, a true history of several honourable families of the name of Scot (1776); Scott, Border Exploits, p. 325-329; Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland, iii. 1-5; Tytler's History of Scotland; Fraser, The Scotts of Buccleugh (1878), i. lxvi, 169, 180-202, 206, 209, 222; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ii. 44, iii. 169, iv. 796, 799, 804, 805, v. 290, 298-9, 300, 323-4, 361, 423, 761.]
ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM (1602?–1658?), known as Christie's Will, a border freebooter, was the son or grandson of the Christie Armstrong referred to in the ballad of 'Johnnie Armstrong' as 'Kristy my son,' and inherited Gilnockie Tower. Having been imprisoned in the Tolbooth, Jedburgh, for stealing two colts during a marauding expedition, he received his release through the interposition of the Earl of Traquair, lord high treasurer, and henceforth became devoted heart and soul to the earl's interests. Some time afterwards a lawsuit, in which the Earl of Traquair was a party, was on for trial in the Court of Session, Edinburgh. The decision, it was supposed, would turn on the opinion of the presiding judge, Lord Durie, who was known to be unfavourable to Lord Traquair. Armstrong, therefore, kidnapped the judge at Leith Sands, where he was taking his usual exercise on horseback, and conveyed him blindfold to an old castle, the tower of Graham, on the Dryfe water, near Moffat. The judge's friends mourned for him as dead, the belief being that his horse had thrown him into the sea; but after the case was settled he was again conveyed blindfold to Leith Sands, whence he made his way home three months later than his horse. As Lord Durie was twice chosen president of the court, namely, for the summer session of 1642, and for the winter session of 1643, his capture must have taken place in one of these years. Armstrong is said also to have been employed by Traquair, during the civil war, in conveying a packet to the king; and on his return to have made his escape at Carlisle from the pursuit of Cromwell's soldiers by springing his horse over the parapet of the bridge that crosses the Eden, which was then in flood. It is not impossible that the tombstone discovered in the churchyard of Sark,
