The History of The Selkirk Hammermen

The History of the Selkirk Hammermen
We received our charter during the reign of Charles II in 1681, when one and
thirty smiths, masons wrights and coopers made an application to the town
council to form themselves into a brotherhood under the title of Hammermen.
We can state with certainty however that our Incorporation was in existence
many centuries before this date.
THE EARLY YEARS:
The very earliest Hammermen in the ancient town of Selechrche must have been
woodsmen, and surrounded by dense forest there would be no scarcity of
material. In 1113, when David I brought his Tironesian monks from Picardy to
teach the natives of his old town their art and craft skills, then here would be the
first stonemasons taught by the monks to carve the great slabs of stone, hewn
locally, to build the first of the Borders Abbeys at Selkirk Abbatius. Succeeding
historians and researchers maintain that most of these huge blocks of stone
were transferred to the new selected site at Kelso. A local journalist and historian
of the first quarter of the 20th Century, William Anderson, was commissioned by a
national newspaper to do much research into this, and he argues tha some of
Selkirks stone masons would undoubtedly go with the monks to Kelso to help in
the building of the new abbey there.
The first church at Lindean, opposite the site of the abbey by the side of the
Battis burn, would almost certainly be built too by the new local tradesmen as a
place of worship until the abbey was completed. A simpler edifice, probably as a
sort of apprenticeship before embarking on the inticrate carving of the stones
which were used for the abbey itself. So it is safe to say that the earliest
stonemasons in the country now known as Scotland would be those of our old
town.
That they pursued their newfound skill down through the centuries there can be
no doubt. The monks of Kelso retained their links with the lands of Selkirk
Abbatis, and on their frequent and prolonged visits they would see to it that the
craftsmen of Selkirk were kept to the skills taught by their forbears, the first
monks. To facilitate travel and communication between Selkirk and their lands at
Lesmahagow in the valley of Clyde, the monks had a bridge built over the Ettrick
in 1234 at Bridgeheuch and again it would be the Hammermen of Selkirk who
would assist in the building of this.
The may mediaeval roads leading to and from Selkirk would also be part of the
work of the stonemasons, especially the Via Regis, the first royal road leading
from the north, which historians Hadie, Ingles and Robertson tell us climbed from
the monks bridge up past where Bridglands House now stands to finish at
Selkirk Castle. Selkirk craftsmen and masons would certainly be at the building of
the Auld Wark in the time of Alexander III, and latterly at Newark in 1466, built
for James III.
In those days Selkirk was a settlement or toun of considerable size, with

numerous inns with stables attached to cater for gallant knights and humble
drovers who made the town their halting place, it being favourably situated
halfway on the direct road between Carlisle and the Firth of Forth. This gave
plenty of work to blacksmiths and saddlers alike. Indeed at the time of a garrison
of soldiers at the royal castle, there was abundant work for all manner of
tradesmen in the town.
THE SEAL OF CAUSE:
It was in the second half of the fourteenth century that the crafts ins Scotland
first asked for public recognition and protection. No man could carry on a trade
or business in a town unless he was a burgess or freeman of the town wherein he
plied his trade. It was at his time too that the burghs in Scoland had to find large
sums of money to meet the ransom of David II (1341-1371). The redemption
could only be raised through the trading activities of the merchants whereas
craftsmen were supposed to do little more than serve and satisfy local needs.
This these merchants were who handled the greater part of the burghs
contribution to national needs gradually gained more influence than the
craftsmen in the day to day administration of burgh affairs.
Such a monopoly of power inevitably led to friction and to some corruption, but
following an act of parliament in 1469, a number of crafts in different burghs
obtained from their town councils what were popularly called Seals of Cause
and these gave strength and unity to the individual crafts and increased their
political clout.
Under its seal of cause the craft could now draw up rules to ensure good
workmanship for the honour of the craft, to regulate apprenticeships, and to
raise funds for the benefit of decayed brethren, widows and orphans of
craftsmen who had passed on. Such an incorporation also enabled each craft to
ensure that within the burgh, the work of the craft was done only by its own
members. Is this now what we call the closed shop? In 1556 Mary of Guise felt
that the craftsmen of the burghs should have more power and voice in burgh
affairs, and granted a general charter accordingly. The deacon of each craft now
sat on the town council and, in the space of a few years, a colleague was
elected to accompany him.
It seems though that long before all this took place, the craftsmen of Selkirk had
rights from the King, as had other royal burghs, to guard there respective trades
and skills because when David I began to feudalise his realm, he did not create
new towns, but extended around existing burghs, naming them shirchen or
shires. Hence to all the names of the old royal burghs was added the land, which
came to be known as shire, and this surrounding land with all its inhabitants had
to trade with the burgh to which it belonged. The name of the thirty-one who
founded our Incorporation and whose signatures are on our Seal of Cause are as
follows:
James
Thomson
John Renwick
Simon Fletcher
John Curror
Thomas Hall
William
Renwick
William Hall
John Luckup
William Dods
John Fairgrieve
James Hall
Patrick Scone
Walter Halliwall
John Seinton
James Shiel
William
Renwick
(mason)
Robert Scott
William
LangJohn
Thomas Black
James Ker
Francis Minto
Andrew Gray
William
Paterson
William
Thurbrand
William
Thomson
John
Middlemist
James
Cunninghame
(coppersmith)
Andrew
Thompson
William Scott
TROUBLED TIMES
Andrew Lang tells us of the great care with which these burghs guarded their
trading rights and secrets; long before the 17 th century when the Selkirk
craftsmen got their Seal of Cause, they had been organised into a protective
association. Loyalties were fierce, for as David Mackie stated Selkirks history is
her flags. One notable orator in 1917 said that Selkirk was ever a soldier burgh,
and it was the men of the crafts and trades who followed their leaders into battle
and to die. They even marched in their separate crafts! The forest of Ettrick was
famed for its deer, and its men unlike the majority of their countrymen were
famed for their archery. At Falkirk in 1298, the English chroniclers bore witness to
the warlike prowess of the men of Selkirk, as well to their fine appearance. At
Bannockburn too the sons of the Forest distinguished themselves, and of course
again at Flodden.
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