The Scottish Gypsies

The Gypsies of Scotland are part of a close-knit communal people who have a shared background, but are scattered throughout the world. Their origins have been the subject of controversy throughout the centuries, but in modern times, we have discovered, from research into their language, that the gypsies originated in Northern India, from whence they spread throughout Europe and the Middle East. No one knows when the first gypsies left India or, indeed, why..........

Renaissance Scotland
Persecution has regularly visited upon Nackens, or Gypsy Travellers, in Scotland. Time and time again, we see it throughout the annals of history. Since the mid-sixteenth century successive purges have been aimed at eradicating the culture.

While records show that Gypsies were initially welcomed into Scotland, the Reformation signalled a downturn in group fortunes. The first anti-Gypsy law was enacted in 1541. Gypsies were to leave Scotland “under the pain of death”.

The year 1571 saw the Act of Stringency heighten the punishment for anyone convicted of being a Gypsy. This became the order of the day for the ensuing 33 years. Hanging, branding, drowning, pinning Gypsies to trees by the ears, lopping off ears and deportation were all legalised.

In 1603, the Privy Council ordered all Gypsies to leave Scotland, never to return, again, on pain of death. The “Act Anent the Egiptians” was ratified in 1609. Many examples of executions carried out under this Act are recounted by Sir Walter Scott in a series of articles in the Edinburgh Magazine of 1817 and by David MacRitchie in his work, Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts. Scott’s listings include evidence of a total of nineteen hangings in the first month of 1624. It was also under this law that Jamie MacPherson was hanged, along with James Gordon, on 17 November 1700.

From Scotland to Scandinavia
Given the level of reprisal, it is known that some Scottish Nackens, or Gypsy Travellers migrated to Scandinavia. It is perhaps not insignificant that the term Näcken, pronounced ‘Necken’, appears in Scandinavian folklore as the name of an unsavoury water sprite.

Certainly, we know that Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian Romani attribute their origins to migrant Scottish Gypsies. These groups were in turn expelled from Sweden in 1637. this is part of a pattern of purges on Gypsy Travellers that can be found all over Europe. In many of these cases, Gypsies were ordered to leave and could be executed when they failed to comply.

Death and deportation
The last individuals to be executed in Scotland for being Gypsies were Agnes McDonald and Jean Baillie. The two women were sent to their deaths in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, in 1714.

Gypsy Travellers were also shipped to plantations in British colonies. As early as 1665 there are records of Gypsies in Scotland being deported to plantations in Jamaica and Barbados. Among other examples, around 1714, eight Gypsy Travellers were ‘sentenced to be transported to the Queen’s American plantations for life’.

The Scottish Gypsies

---