Who is our current Chief?
The short answer is, no-one. In fact it could be argued that we don’t even have a senior branch which is descended from the original Chiefs line.
Who was our last Chief?
Our greatest stumbling in identifying our last chief and pursuing the appointment of a new one is that the last record of a Routledge Chief appears in a document dated 1543 and frustratingly it failed to give a Christian name and simply referred to in the following record as:
“….the chief of the Armestrongs, Rowteleages and Nycsones of Lyddesdale offered Sir Thos. Wharton to serve the King with 100 horse and 100 foot and be sworn the King's subjects, and dwell in Lyddesdale or the Batable Ground or in England, if they might have their friends, now prisoners at Carlisle and Alnwick, released, who were taken at the burning of Sleyley, and to release four Englishmen whom they took there.”
Ordinarily you would look for a later, earlier or another record of the same period which mentioned the chief again. Ideally a record that said ‘John Routledge of Tarras Moss, Chief of all Routledges…” would solve all problems and we could tangibly pinpoint a Chief and a tower, bastle or even farmstead to which the Routledges would call home (With the Armstrongs for example they had the Laird of Mangerton and the ruins of the Mangerton to pay visits and homage too). Sadly however this one record (above) and one wrote the following day (below) are the only records we have to work on:
“This shall be to advertise you [that such news "as ye sente hither yesterdaye be adu[ertised up to the Court]; and wher yor lordship wrote to k[now what answer it] were best to make to Sir Thomas Wh[arton for the] Armestranges of Lyddisdale and the Ro[wteleages] and the Nycsones concerning their offers" to be the King's subjects, made in order to avoid the due punishment of their kinsmen taken for breaking the truce, better answer than has been heretofore given cannot be devised. If their offers were accepted, the Scots would say we broke the truce; and the promises of such broken men will be kept no longer than serves them…”
Once again Christian names have been omitted due to the fact these would have been well known figures at the time. What they do give us though, are confirmation that in 1543 the Routledges had a Chiefly figure head and he resided in Liddesdale.
So what became of him? Well the answer comes from reading how our Scottish history panned out as a family and what your own conclusions are. When the Earl of Hertford devastated the Routledge home lands in the north Hawick area, Teviotdale and most of northern Roxburgh the Chief disappears just as quickly and enigmatically as he had appeared. This leaves us with three options for our last chiefs outcome; He fled to Ireland, he was killed or he was captured and died at English hands. Whatever happened to him though, come the 1587 Act of the Scottish Parliament Roll of the Clans that have Captains, Chiefs and Chieftains there was no mention of any Routledge. Now while you may be able to argue that the 1543 record could be interpreted that there was one person who was chief of the Armstrongs, Nixons and Routledges, what discounts this theory is the 1587 record. It lists those families with Chiefs or who depend upon Captains on the Border in the Middle march as Armstrong, Elliots, Nixsons and Croziers. This means that the Nixon’s were defiantly an independent family as they and we Routledges had been in 1543.
By 1587 we were regarded as a heidless family who no longer relied upon a captain or chiefly figure and were still clinging, in small pockets, to Scottish soil. The last significant piece of evidence was in 1569 when the Routledges of Liddesdale were mentioned alongside other well-known Reiver families:
“…in quelling the disorders of the Border counties, thirty two of the principal barons, provosts, and balies of the towns, and other chief men, subscribed a band at keslo on the 6th of April 1569. Representing the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk and peebles, they bound themselves to concur to resist the rebellious people of Liddesdale, Ewesdale, Eskdale, and Annandale, and especially all the names of Armstrong, Elliot, Nixon, Liddel, Bateson, Thompson, Irving, Bell, Johnston, Glendonyng, Routlige, Henderson, and Sotts of Ewsdale. Further, they undertook that they would not intercommune with any of them, nor suffer any meat, drink, or victuals to be bought or carried to them, nor suffer them to resort to markets or tryst withing their bounds, nor permt them to pasture their flocks or abide upon any lands “out with Liddesdale” unless within eight days they should find sufficient and responsible sureties. “And all others not findi surites within the said sace, we shall purse to the death with fire and sword, and all other kinds of hostility”….”
This record while supporting the infamousness of the Routledges also seems to be a fitting epitaph to the last of the Scottish Routledges. They were now great enough in numbers to be mentioned, but they were leaderless and broken men. Whatever had happened during the Rough Wooings of 1544-1549 one thing is for certain, the Routledges chief if survived did not on the page.
Searching for a new chief?
This is by no means the most ominous task that faces us as a clan; finding our chief. Our starting point has to be the records of the 16th century in the hope that by trawling through state, local and family papers another fleeting mention is made of one.
The Routledges today stand a heidless clan which is struggling for recognition as a Scottish family. Due to the fact we are seeking recognition and the international fragmentation of our surname means that appointing a new chief is a distant and virtually unattainable aspiration. The basic requirements for the appointment of a new chief would be for that person to be a direct descendant of the previous chief, to bare Scottish arms (they would be known as an Armiger) and to dwell in Scotland. Straight away the first point leaves us with an almighty stumbling block but luckily there are guidelines that the Lord Lyon has laid down (http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/241.html). I have laid down the main points which apply to ourselves below:
· The revival of interest in Scottish ancestry over the last 50 years has encouraged many clans and families, who had not previously done so, to look for a leader. For many clans this has involved searching for the person most directly descended from the last known chief of the clan
· Where such a family is able to prove that it has existed historically as an independent family group, then the Lord Lyon may be prepared to recognise them as a distinct clan or name
· The situation may, however, be that a family group has no clear historical evidence of its existence as a group in the distant past. In such a case it may be possible for a group to move towards being treated as a clan or name by various stages.
· Since the clan and heraldic systems are so closely linked, the first stage would be for there to be a number of individuals using the same surname to record their own Arms. Once there were a significant number of armigers within the group it would be possible for a derbhfine of the group to convene and make a proposal to the Lord Lyon for the appointment of one of the group as Commander.
· If the Lord Lyon is so minded a Commander will be appointed. Once that has happened a 10 year period must then elapse before any question of a chief can be considered. After the 10 year period a further derbhfine could, if the group desire, be held. This derbhfine could then make a proposal to the Lord Lyon for the appointment of a chief. Again regulations exist for the way in which such a derbhfine should proceed.
As you can see from the points above we have a long way to go before we can be in a position to even approach the Lord Lyon. If the answer from the Lord Lyon is ‘no’ to the Routledges having a chief it does not allow us to reapply in a few years’ time, but it means ‘no’ for good (or till at least the next Lord Lyon is in seat). So for the time being and foreseeable future we must remain a heidless clan.
What can we do next?
I recently posed the question to the Council of Scottish Armigers that “Will we not be considered as a Scottish family until we have a Chief, or until we have a Chief will we not be considered a Scottish family?” and the advice I got back was quite clear and directionally informative:
“I dont agree that you can’t be considered a Scottish family until you have a Chief. For example, if you imagine you had a Chief just now there would still be a lot of work unconnected to this fact to educate the public on your history. This can be achieved through history books, web-sites and by arranging clan gatherings and also representation on a Council such as ours. From many years of experience, running an organised family is about much more than simply having a Chief. There are a few recognised Chiefs who have learned this the hard way, by their clansfolk all but deserting them because of their lack of activity over many years. Whereas, on the other hand there are very active clans who have never had a Chief in their entire history and who are well known and whose armigerous members are well respected by the clan and can arrange gatherings with many hundreds attending.”
So the message seems to be quite clear; we need to re-educate the world that we were Scottish and not English. In today’s modern world of easy access media, social media and social groups this task is made even easier for us as a clan. While work on a book compiling the history of the Routledge surname is three quarters complete it is still an on-going research project, which constantly finds new facts and records which support our case.
What can you do?
Facebook groups are already in place as are websites such as www.everymansprey.com but anybody can start a group. What we need are facts, dates and a loud voice. We need to attend border gatherings, give lectures, talks and have works published. We need to have creditable and quotable evidence if we are to be accepted and that how we must go forward. Our first step on this journey has been the formation of this society and the organising of a gathering, for we must come together if our voice is to be heard. Your role is to pass on our story, write articles for your local family history group and attend Scottish games baring the Routledge name.
A Little Clan idea...
Clan Little is like ourselves a leaderless clan but with the difference that they had a chief in the 1587 records and they can trace their chief to the point that the line becomes extinct. They find themselves recognised and accepted as a Scottish clan but have no chief or candidate that they can approach the Lord Lyon to recognise as a commander. So what they did was they self-appointed at an AGM a ‘Clan Guardian’ whose role it is to act like a Chief and become a figure head for the Clan. Although he is not an actual Chief, he is the figure head of the clan, a sort of caretaker manager until one is appointed or given the job. Appointment of a Clan guardian for the Routledges is certainly something that I would like to discuss come May 5th 2012 and we shall then look for potential candidates. Until then we must learn our revised family history and shout it from every roof top in the land.
All the best
Tom Routledge, (Acting Chairman)
