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The historical reference to the skirmish occurs in a letter from Lord
Dacre to Henry VIII, 13th November 1513, and the connection with this
place is in the phrase "so to the Sclater Ford on the water of Bowset".
This is identified with a ford over the Fodderlee Burn below Bowshot
Hill.
The period following the Scots defeat at Flodden, in 1513, was one of
turbulence. The Skirmish at Sclaterford was just one of several
confrontations.
The extract is from a letter of Dacre to King Henry, 13 Nov., 1514.
On Thursday last past, I assembled your subjects in Northumberland to
the number of a thousand horsemen, and rode in at Gallespeth, and so to
the water of Kale, two miles within Scotland, and there set forth two
forays ; my brother Philip Dacre with three hundred, who burnt and
destroyed the town of Rewcastle with all the corn in the same and
there-about, and took two towers in it, and burnt both roof and floors ;
and Sir Roger Fenwick with three hundred men burnt the town of Lanton,
and destroyed all the corn therein. . . . And I came with an ambush to a
place called the Dungeon, a mile from Jedburgh, and so went to the
Sclater Ford on the water of Bowset; and there the Scots pursued us
right sore, there bickered with us, and gave us hand strokes. There come
three standards to back them, . . . with the number of seven hundred men
or more. The laird of Wauchope was hurt there with an arrow, and his
horse slain. Mark Turnbull was stricken with a spear, and the head left
in him ; his horse w-as taken, and divers Scots were hurt there. And so
we came forward, where we saw my brother Sir Christopher Dacre with his
host arrayed at a place called the Bellyng, which was to us no little
comfort.
. . . We had not ridden above the space of one mile, when we saw the
Lord Chamberlain appear in our sight with two thousand men and four
standards.
The other three standards resorted to him, and so the country drew fast
to them. We put us in array, and came homeward, and rode no faster than
our sheep and swine that we had taken would drive, which was of no great
substance, for the country wruS warned of our coming, and the beacons
burnt from midnight forward. And when the Scots had given us over, we
returned home.
The Scottish force of some 700 consisted of Kerrs of Ferniehirst and the
Douglases of Bonjedward and
Cavers, the Scotts from Hawick, and the Turnbulls, under George
Tunbull of Bedrule.
A memorial plaque was placed on the nearby bridge in 1903 and replaced
in 2007.
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