Neither Scottish nor English first — Borderers first, and family above all
From the late 13th century to the Union of the Crowns, the Anglo-Scottish border was Europe's most lawless frontier. Constant war between the two kingdoms burned out settled farming, so the Border families turned to the only economy that survived armies: cattle raiding. Reiving — from the old word for robbery — became a way of life with its own code, its own justice, and its own heroes and villains, often the same men.
The riding surnames mattered more than nationality. An Armstrong of Liddesdale had more in common with an English Charlton of Tynedale than with a merchant in Edinburgh. Families rode together in surname groups, feuded for generations — Maxwell against Johnstone was the bloodiest — and answered to their heidsmen before any king. Both crowns managed the chaos through March Wardens and the strange cross-border law of the hot trod, which licensed victims to pursue stolen goods across the frontier.
When James VI took the English throne in 1603, the Borders became the 'Middle Shires' and the riding times were ended by rope, exile and transportation — many families were shipped to Ulster, and from there to America. That's why Reiver surnames like Armstrong, Nixon, Bell and Graham are so common across the United States today. Their tartans, recorded in the modern era, let their descendants wear the frontier's memory.
The Marches — Six wardens, one frontier
Each kingdom split its side of the border into West, Middle and East Marches, each under a Warden. On Truce Days the opposing Wardens met to try cross-border cases — meetings that themselves sometimes ended in ambush, as the Kerrs and Scotts could attest.
The Trod — Licensed pursuit
A raided family could legally ride into the other kingdom to recover its cattle — the 'hot trod' if within six days, sleuth-hound and burning turf aloft. Refuse to assist a lawful trod and you were counted as guilty as the thieves.
The End — Rope, exile, Ulster
After 1603 James VI dissolved the frontier with brutal speed: mass hangings of Armstrongs and Grahams, whole surnames banished to Ireland's new Ulster plantation. The Borders fell quiet — and the riding names began their long journey to America.