Humble beginnings
Lands in Hawick
Now many books will say that we, the Routledges, come from a vanished
place in Cumberland and were first record as a Symon Routledge in 1494
in Scotland. Although it is true that there was a Symon Routledge, well
de Routluge, in 1494, it will be with him that our early beginnings end
and not start. And as for the "vanished place" in Cumberland this is utter
tosh in my eyes, as there is a place north of Bewcastle called
Routledge burn, but as I've already mentioned on this site it got its
name from the group of Routledges in the area and not the other way
around. And the Routledges were long in existence before it got its
name.
So if not Symon in 1494, or from Cumberland then when and where did we come from? Well what I'm going to present to you may not be the final answer as I along with a few other people are continuously researching this. But for this instance of this website I am going to stick with what I know and have proven and try my best not to guess or speculate; although please excuse my occasional fantasizing as its easily done when concerning your own heritage. But I will do my best to stick to facts.
Symon de Routluge 1433-1456
But I just said Symon was not the first Routledge, I hear you cry. Well the one in 1494 wasn't but the one in 1433 was as I'm about to explain. It should also be noted at this point also that it is an old Scottish tradition that the first born son takes the name of the father, and this is carried on for many generations. So 'Symonis de Routluge', in a Sasine (a sale of land) on Aug 22 1433 between Sir William Douglas of Hawick and Symon, a burgess of Hawick is the first know record of a Routledge in history. Now this may not actually be the very first man called Routledge, but it is the first historical record of one or rather the earliest known one. This in itself is an interesting querk in history as in order to be a burgess, a town must first have a charter. However Hawick did not get its first town charter till 1537. So either there was an earlier one which was lost to time, or Symon was a burgess of somewhere else. Its like being a Mayor, you cant have a Mayor before a town, you must have a town first. But back to Symon...
So straight away we know that Symon was an important man, and could afford to buy land instead of renting it. Which means already we know of his status which is far better than just a name in a list which gives us no information at all. And when you get this far back in history, land tax, rent, court records, witnesses to documents, royalty and land sales is the only records that you have to work with. Marriages, birth and deaths are unheard of unless a document refers to a dowry or is connected to some one of very high status or importance. So with this in mind I'd resigned myself to only ever seeing Symon's name in the odd document here and there and never know much more about him. So his next mention in history was going to turn out to be the rarest of finds ever.
It was a Charter of land, then a Sasine of the same land a few months later that the unimaginable would be found. It described not only Simon, but his wife, step son and father in law! The Charter was between a Margaret Cusing and Walter Scott on the 19th April and then a Sasine later on the 7th August 1447. The land was to the West of Simons land in 1433, which he would later sell in 1448 only a few months after Margaret's land would be sold in the Sasine. The Sasine basically was Margaret receiving permission from her husband Simon and her son Robert Scott, to sell the land she received from her father William Cusing.
From this information we know that Margaret must have previously been married to a Scott as the children always carried the fathers name while the wife kept hers. So from this one document we can create a picture showing three generations of one family.
So already beyond my wildest dreams I had
found not only Simon again but his family too. So for me I thought this
was it. There was no more discoveries to be made regarding Simon. Well
that was till I looked at the original 1448 Charter where Simon sold his
land to Walter Scott Laird of Buccleuch that he had acquired in 1433. It was something that was
attached to the bottom of the document that stunned me into disbelief
once I had it confirmed as to who's it was; it was Symon de Routluge's
seal! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined to find this. And
also with this find, I put the earliest know Routledge associated coat
of arms back nearly 300 years! This was also the explanation as to why
between Simon's surname never changed its spelling from 1433 right the
way through to 1456, the spelling had been on his seal.
So it was 'Symonis de Routluge', a man who was a burgess without a town, who had rich wife and a seal, who suddenly appeared into history with land, that the Routledges came from. All that remains of Simon's land today are a few familiar place names on a new housing estate.
Simon's Legacy
So from the spelling in documents, and his seal, it meant I could roughly figure out when Simon's son and grandchildren would have been born, and also by the gaps between their appearances in history. The next Simon was in 1464, and then in 1484, 1494 and finally 1501. Now using the rule that in Scotland the first son is named after he father, I am making the assumption that can be neither proved nor disproved that each Simon was the son of the previous Simon. This works till 1494 when Simons son is named as Mathew in a raid (more of which covered a lot more further on in this website).
So using the rule that the life expectance back then ranged from 40 to 50 at the best I could work out roughly when the generations were alive. No dates but certainly a tree of some sort showing how the Routledges began. All of these records where sadly not as informative as the early Simon, but never the less they inform us that the Routledges continued to be burgess of Hawick well into the 1500's. Even Mathew is mentioned as late as 1511 where after it becomes a David in 1514, 1526(from Liddesdale) and finally in 1537 and 1545 in the Hawick town charter as the largest single land owner. So perhaps David was related to Simon and Mathew, and after the battle of Flodden where nearly all the adults in Hawick where killed, David stepped into his father or uncles shoes and took over the land. But this is pure speculation and I only have the documents I've found so far or that have survived to work with. So please don't take it for certain that there was Routledges at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, as this is purely a suggested explanation I have presented for you, and that fits the facts while still being feasible.
Now Simon, Mathew and David where not the only Routledges in the area just, far from it. I've come across in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland references to a John and Walter Routledge in 1471, and a "Mathei, Jacobi, Johannis and Symonnis Routlich" paying some sort of tax or fine to the crown at or near Selkirk in 1501 (sorry about the vague reference but my Latin is only patchy, and old Scot even worse). So perhaps John, Jacob, Mathew and Simon where all related but bothers, sons, fathers. nephew's or cousins I will never know, although the search continues. Also I have a record to a group of Routledges living at the Leven in 1491, although no Christian names have been given sadly. The Leven is now called the white and black line and is the river that runs through and near Bewcastle.
So after all this it turns out that my original, and most historians views to Simon, are in need of some re-thinking. It was my view that the first Simon was a simple farmer that bought his little plot of land and from there passed it down through his family. And in general just eased himself into history. But instead he had money and thought himself important enough to have a seal made up, and had a lot of land. He then married the widow of a Scott and gained more land and power too and was a Burgees 104 years before Hawick was even a town. It does leave me wondering though, if he had all this power money and land, where was he before this and why is he not heard off?
The reason is actually quiet simple in fact, and can be attributed to one of two factors or possibly both. The begging of the 1400's had seen the black death ravage Europe and Britain reaching into the depths of Scotland. Millions were killed and voids in society created, in hierarchy, and vacant land. The other reason could have been that the one document which told the story of where he came from was lost in time. I mean I have enough problems trying to track down my family tree 100 years ago let alone someone who lived nearly 600 years ago! So either Simon came from money and wealth else where or he gained everything after loosing his father and family to the plague.
Simon's Tree
Below I've done my best to create a rough family tree for Simon. The dates shown are not birth and death but when that generation appeared in records from and too. As for David down the bottom it is only guess work that he fits in to the tree, but whether he was Mathews son or brother I doubt I'll ever prove.
So where was his land? Well I've already said it was near Hawick and below is a map showing the rough area it was found in. The Charter describes the land in quite detail, where as Margaret's was just described as in the estate of "Brankisholme". Simons land which in 1433 he buys from William Douglas, and then sells to Walter Scott in 1447 is describe as;
"the lands Birkwood called the oxgang, between the water of slittrig and the lands Whitelaw, burnflat and the smallburn"
This, after much researching, turned out to be an area nearly the size off the current day Hawick, an impressive amount of land by anyone's standards today. And Margaret's land would have sat somewhere just to the west, possibly adjacent to it. All that remains of Simon's land today are a few familiar place names.
So there it is, You know know where the Routledges came from and who they were......
Well you know about Simon and his land and legacy, but as from where he came from, that's up to you to decided. As I've spent a long time doing research and studying and have a few of my own ideas, all of which can fit the facts, but none of which I can be eliminated nor proven. He either inherited the land and money, or he was around long before some where along the border but the documents have long since being lost. And who knows, it might have ironically been a Routledge on a raid as a Border Reiver some time in the 16th century that burnt the church or building that contained the very documents I'm looking for.
But like I've said above I've presented the facts and presented a few of my own theories. All I can prove for certain is that at the start off the 15th century there were Routledges on Scottish side of the Border near Hawick and Selkirk and these are the earliest recorded Routledges.
However I'll leave you with an after thought just to make you re-think everything, just as I have recently. The surname of Simons wife, Cusing, is not recorded till the late 16th and early 17th century and has very few associated variations with it. So finding Cusing in 1447 will probably be a big surprise to anyone who researches that surname too. This lead me to search for the name in the Scottish archives, to which I unearthed a Cusing in the the very early 1400's near Nairn in Morayshire. Now for no one who knows where this is, its the area to the east and south east of Inverness. So perhaps a possible relative, who knows.
But just as your thinking, surely that's too far north for Simon and his family to have moved south, don't forget that the plague would have left a vacuum in the south. Also in Morayshire, in the very south off it, there is a tiny little hamlet called Redlatches. Which shares a very tantalizing similarity to the phonetic pronunciation of Routledges...
...and you thought you'd just got your head round the early Routledges.
