Note 1. These verses are supposed to have been written by one of the Armstrongs, presumably Thomas, executed for the murder of Sir John Carmichael of Edrom, Warden of the Middle Marches, on June 16, 1600, at Raesknows, near Lochmaben, whither he was going to hold a court of justice. “Two of the ringleaders in the slaughter (Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. ii., p. 19), Thomas Armstrong, called Ringan’s Tam, and Adam Scott, called the Pecket, were tried at Edinburgh at the instance of Carmichael of Edrom. They were condemned to have their hands struck off, thereafter to be hanged, and their bodies gibbeted on the Borough Moor; which sentence was executed 14th November, 1601.” [back]
