Ingram : Raids And Garrisons

Ingram was very vulnerable to Scottish raids because of its proximity to the border.  In 1344 the parish was one of those which petitioned for relief from taxation because of the destruction wrought by the Scots. In 1436 it had again been wasted by the Scots and further raids are recorded in 1532, 1587 (two) and 1588 (NCH XIV (1935), 471).

The tenants of the Border townships were bound to do military service.  At the muster held in 1538, nine men from Ingam attended ‘able with horse and harness’ (i.e. full military gear of helmet, lance, sword and protective ‘jack’ etc.) and 15 without horse and harness (1538 Muster Roll).  The equivalent figures for Fawdon were 8 and 5 and for Reaveley 13 and 14. However such local levies could not protect the Border communities against the worst of the Scottish raids.

One possible response was to station troops in the border villages to provide protection and mount counterattacks – ‘as well as for defence of the said border as to the annoysance of the Scotts’ (Lord Dacre’s Ledger Book 1523-4; see Selected Sources and Surveys no. 5). In 1509, Ingram was listed as one of a series of 29 ‘holds and townships’ where it was proposed to station garrisons of horsemen (Bates 1891, 24; Selected Sources and Surveys no. 4), with 40 men being allocated to Lord Ogle’s ‘hold’ there.

In 1523, George Ogle, perhaps a younger brother of Lord Ogle, evidently agreed to provide board and lodging for 60 troops at Ingram for a sum of 2s 8d per soldier per week (see Selected Sources and Surveys no. 5). How long such garrisons were maintained is unclear, but in 1526 Robert lord Ogle granted his third of the manor to another relative, Cuthbert Ogle, a fighting priest (NCH XIV (1935), 263, 395-6, 461, 474), perhaps glad of the opportunity to escape the potential burdens and liabilities inherent in lordship of such a vulnerable border township.