Alexander Moor, Sheriff Depute, of Aberdeenshire, states: “There are not any Gypsies who have a permanent residence in that Sheriffalty. Occasionally vagrants, both single and in bands, appear in this part of the country; resorting to fairs, where they commit
depredations on the unwary. Some of them are supposed to be connected with Gypsies in the southern part of the island.”
John Blair, Sheriff Substitute for the County of Bute, writes: “I have to inform that the people generally known by the description of Gypsies, are not in use to come hither, unless abject, itinerant tinkers and braziers, generally from Ireland, may be accounted such. A few of them often visit us, and take up their abode for a time in different parts of the country, where people can be prevailed upon to give them the accommodation of an out-house or hut.”
They are understood to be illiterate, neither they, nor their children, who are often numerous, being able to read.
The distinguished northern Poet, Walter Scott, who is Sheriff of Selkirkshire, has in a very obliging manner communicated the following statement:
“A set of people possessing the same erratic habits, and practising the trade of tinkers, are well known in the Borders; and have often
fallen under the cognisance of the law. They are often called Gypsies, and pass through the county annually in small bands, with their carts and asses. The men are tinkers, poachers, and thieves upon a small scale. They also sell crockery, deal in old rags, in eggs, in salt, in tobacco and such trifles; and manufacture horn into spoons, I believe most of those who come through Selkirkshire, reside, during winter, in the villages of Sterncliff and Spittal, in Northumberland, and in that of Kirk Yetholm, Roxburghshire.
“Mr. Smith, the respectable Baillie [94] of Kelso, can give the most complete information concerning those who reside at Kirk Yetholm. Formerly, I believe, they were much more desperate in their conduct than at present. But some of the most atrocious families have been extirpated, I allude particularly to the Winters, a Northumberland clan, who I fancy are all buried by this time.
“Mr. Reddell, Justice of Peace for Roxburghshire, with my assistance and concurrence, cleared this country of the last of them, about eight or nine years ago. They were thorough desperadoes, of the worst class of vagabonds. Those who now travel through this country, give offence chiefly by poaching, and small thefts. They are divided into clans, the principal names being Faa, Baillie, Young, Ruthven, and Gordon.
“All of them are perfectly ignorant of religion, nor do their children receive any education. They marry and cohabit amongst each other, and are held in a sort of horror by the common people.