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Crawford called this band of Saracens and Moors, Gypsies, despite Mackenzie not describing them as such.<ref>"From these accounts, then, it appears that a tradition was prevalent in Galloway two centuries ago, according to which that district had been ravaged, two centuries earlier, by a band of Moors or Saracens, styled 'Gypsies' by a writer of the year 1716." (MacRitchie, 1894: 22)</ref>
Crawford called this band of Saracens and Moors, Gypsies, despite Mackenzie not describing them as such.<ref>"From these accounts, then, it appears that a tradition was prevalent in Galloway two centuries ago, according to which that district had been ravaged, two centuries earlier, by a band of Moors or Saracens, styled 'Gypsies' by a writer of the year 1716." (MacRitchie, 1894: 22)</ref>


It remains unclear when Outlaw Murray began to be called Black Murray (or Black Morrow) because neither does the separate tradition call him this.
It remains unclear when Outlaw Murray began to be called Black Murray (or Black Morrow) because neither does the separate tradition call him this; David MacRitchie in 1894 traced Black Murray to two earlier 19th century literary sources, arguing they were local variants of the Mackenzie/Crawford tradition: "It is clear that the "Blackamoor" of both versions, stated in each to have been killed by young Maclellan, is the same as the chief of the "Moors" or "Saracens" whom Sir George Mackenzie speaks of as remembered in tradition as far back as 1680."<ref> MacRitchie, 1894: 24.</ref>


==Story==
==Story==

Revision as of 21:59, 16 January 2016

Black Morrow's severed head appears on the crest badge of Clan MacLellan.

Black Morrow, also known as Black Murray, is the name given to a late 15th century bandit whom according to a ballad was killed by a MacLellan clansman near Kirkcudbright in Galloway, Scotland (in a forest of the same name, just outside the present burgh boundary).

The slain bandit in a seperate tradition is described as a Gypsy, Moor or a Saracen.[1]

Written sources

The story as a ballad, appears as "An Old Song Called Outlaw Murray" in the Glenriddel Manuscripts (XI, 61) published in 1791. It also appears in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of ballads compiled by Walter Scott (1803). Aytoun's Ballads of Scotland (1859) in a note appended to the ballad mentions an earlier manuscript: "written between the years 1689 and 1702" which contains the original song. While the latter manuscript is lost, "it is clear that the ballad was known before 1700; how much earlier it is to be put we can nether ascertain nor safely conjecture".[2] According however to Scott, the ballad or dancing song "appears to have been composed about the reign of James V", while the story itself takes place during the late 15th century.[3]

Note that the ballad doesn't describe the bandit as a Saracen, Moor or Gypsy, nor even as Black Murray or Black Morrow, only as "Outlaw Murray".

A separate tradition of the story is found in Crawford's The Peerage of Scotland (1716) who mentions Sir George Mackenzie, as having written it down in 1680. It is the first to describe the slain bandit as a Moor:

"Sometimes it [the crest] represents some valiant Act done by the Bearer... the Lord Kirkcudbright [his ennobled descendant], does bear a naked Arm, supporting on the point of a sword a Mores [Moor] head ; because Bomhie [the ancestral estate] being forfeited, his Son kill'd a More, who came in with some Sarazens to infest Galloway ; to the Killer of whom the King had promised the Forfeiture of Bomhie."

— The Science of Heraldry, George Mackenzie

Crawford called this band of Saracens and Moors, Gypsies, despite Mackenzie not describing them as such.[4]

It remains unclear when Outlaw Murray began to be called Black Murray (or Black Morrow) because neither does the separate tradition call him this; David MacRitchie in 1894 traced Black Murray to two earlier 19th century literary sources, arguing they were local variants of the Mackenzie/Crawford tradition: "It is clear that the "Blackamoor" of both versions, stated in each to have been killed by young Maclellan, is the same as the chief of the "Moors" or "Saracens" whom Sir George Mackenzie speaks of as remembered in tradition as far back as 1680."[5]

Story

According to one tradition he and his followers occupied Clan MacLellan lands. He was killed by Sir William Mclellan when discovered in a drunken sleep, allowing the MacLellans to regain control of their land. Another version states that a £50 reward was offered for his capture or death and that MacLellan bought the land with the reward.[6] In an elaborate version of the story MacLellan deliberately replaced spring-water in a well with spirits in order to get Black Morrow drunk. The location of the spring in woodland is now known as Black Morrow Wood.[7][8] Another version of the story states that King James offered the barony of Bomby as a reward for the "capture or death of the fierce rover, Black Morrow, who came from Ireland and is terrorising the lands of Kirkcudbright". MacLellan is said to have gathered his followers and murdered Black Morrow and carried his head to the King. The King had forgotten his promise, and MacLellan bade him "Think On", which is now the motto of the Clan MacLellan.[citation needed]

Racial identity

The name "Black Morrow" is assumed to derive from the term "Blackamoor" referring to the Moors of North Africa and Spain.[6] As the date of the incident is not specified in the earliest surviving accounts it is not possible to know whether this implies that Black Morrow was an actual Moor or whether the name was intended to refer to his swarthy skin or barbarous reputation, perhaps analogous to "Black Douglas".[9] Mactaggart who popularized the story in his The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1824) argued Black Murray derived his name from his bad deeds, not his swarthy skin complexion:

"[A] bloody man, gloomy with foul crimes, Black prefaced it, as did Black Douglas, and that of others; so he became Black Murray."

Some writers in the 19th century attempted to use the story as evidence of native racial diversity in Britain. David MacRitchie argued that Black Morrow was probably a gypsy, but claimed that the gypsies were not immigrants but ancient Britons from a primeval dark-skinned race.[6][10]

The bandit as a dark skinned Gypsy could explain the Moor's head that appears on the crest of the Arms of Lord Kirkcudbright, and in consequence the modern crest badge used by Clan MacLellan.[11] The blazon for which is "a naked arm supporting on the point of a sword, a Moor's head".[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Sir George M'Kenzie, who died in 1691, has recorded a tradition that between 1452 and 1460 a company of Saracens or Gypsies from Ireland infested the country of Galloway, in Scotland, and the King promised the barony of Bombie to whomsoever should disperse them and bring in their captain dead or alive. The laird of Bombie's son, a Maclellan, killed the captain, and took his head on a sword to the king. Thereafter Maclellan took for his crest a Moor's head, and for a motto 'Think on'." - Crofton, H. T. (1888). "Early Annals of the Gypsies in England". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 1(1): 5-24. [1]
  2. ^ Child, 2003: 185.
  3. ^ "It is true that the dramatis personae introduced seem to refer to the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century." (Child, 2003: 187)
  4. ^ "From these accounts, then, it appears that a tradition was prevalent in Galloway two centuries ago, according to which that district had been ravaged, two centuries earlier, by a band of Moors or Saracens, styled 'Gypsies' by a writer of the year 1716." (MacRitchie, 1894: 22)
  5. ^ MacRitchie, 1894: 24.
  6. ^ a b c David Macritchie, Scottish Gypsies Under the Stewarts, Kessinger Publishing, 2003 reprint, p.24
  7. ^ Kirkudbright
  8. ^ The Death of Black Morrow inTales of Galloway by Alan Temperley, London 1979
  9. ^ Child, 2003: 189.
  10. ^ David MacRitchie, Ancient and Modern Britons: Volume One, Preston, 1893 (1993 reprint), p.81
  11. ^ "MacLellan". MyClan (www.myclan.com). Archived from the original on 2007-03-19. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  12. ^ "Mac Lellan". (www.celticstudio.com). Retrieved 22 August 2008.

Sources

  • Child, F. J. (2003). "The Outlaw Murray". In: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Vol. 5). Dover Publications [reprint of 1894-1898].
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