RIDLEY FAMILY OF ENGLAND, - EARLY ANCESTRY. 405
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Under the Commonwealth, and in the reign of King Charles II, the
estate of Willimoteswick was, with other property in that neighborhood,
charged in the County rate upon a rental of seven hundred and forty
pounds a year, as owned by Francis Neville, of Chewitt, in the County of
York; but since the beginning of the last century, it has been owned by
the Blacketts of Matfern. Willimoteswick was certainly considered the
principal residence of the Ridleys of Tynedale, and here the successive
chieftains, a race of gallant and formidable knights,-long made their
abode. The broad and valuable lands of the Ridleys lay along the English
border, and became the scene of many a bloody hand-to-hand battle with
the clans who came down upon them from across the Scottish line. Here
rode forth from generation to generation the chiefs of the Ridley clan,
armed to the teeth and coated in mail, followed by members of the numer-
ous branches of the family living along the Tyne Valley at the time, to
redress their wrongs and wreak vengeance upon their enemies across the
border. When an attack was made upon them, every member of the clan
came to the defence, called to arms by beacon-fires kindled upon the
tops of towers or on the surrounding hills, and by the same signal when
about to make an aggressive movement upon their foes. The Ridleys
and Featherstons, of Featherston Castle, were at deadly feud, and for
many years seem to have watched for every opportunity to shed each
other's blood, as will appear from the following account of an engage-
ment at Greenscheles Cleugh, where on the 24th of October, 1530, the
Ridleys killed Alabamy Featherstonhaugh; an event which was made
the source of the strange ballad, which Surtees pretended to have taken
down from the recitation of an old woman of eighty years, the mother of
a miner of Alston Moor, and which Sir Walter Scott inserted in his "Bor-
der Minstrelsy."
"Hoot awa', lads; hoot awa',
Ha' ye heard how the Ridleys, and Thirwalls, and a',
Ha' set upon Albany Featherstonhaugh,
And taken his life at Deadmans Shaw?
There was Willimoteswick,
And Hardriding Dick,
And Hughy, of Hawden, and Will, of the Wall;
I cauna' tell all; I canno' tell all;
And many a muir that the de'il may knaw.
"The auld man went down, but Nichol, his son,
Run away afore the fight was begun;
And he run, and he run,
And afore they were done,
There was mony a Featherston gat sic a stun,
As never was seen since the world begun.
"I canna' tell a', I canno' tell a',
Some gat a skelp, and some gat a claw;
But they gae'd the Featherston's haud their jaw:
Nichol, and Alic, and a'.
Some gat a hurt, and some gat nane;
Some gat a harness, and some gat sta'en,
Ane gat a twist o' the craig;
Ane gat a dunch o' the wame;
Symy Haw gat lamed of a leg,
And syne ran wallowing hame.
"Hoot, hoot, the auld man is slain outright!
Lay him now wi' his face down; - he's a sorrowful sight.
