Moss-trooper

Moss-troopers were brigands of the mid-17th century, who operated across the border country between Scotland and the northern English counties of Northumberland and Cumberland during the period of the English Commonwealth, until after the Restoration.

Moss Troopers Act 1662
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act for preventing of Theft and Rapine upon the Northern Borders of England
Citation	14 Cha. 2. c. 22 (Ruffhead: 13 & 14 Cha. 2. c. 22)
Dates
Royal assent	19 May 1662
Commencement	29 September 1662
Expired	28 September 1667
Repealed	28 July 1863
Other legislation
Amended by	Moss Troopers Act 1666
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Moss Troopers Act 1666
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act to continue a former Act for preventing of Thefte and Rapine upon the Northerne Borders of England.
Citation	18 & 19 Cha. 2. c. 3 (Ruffhead: 18 Cha. 2. c. 4)
Dates
Royal assent	18 January 1667
Commencement	21 September 1666
Expired	28 September 1673
Repealed	28 July 1863
Other legislation
Amends	Moss Troopers Act 1662
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Moss Troopers Act 1677
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act for continuance of two former Acts for preventing of Theft and Rapine upon the Northerne Borders of England.
Citation	29 & 30 Cha. 2. c 2
Dates
Royal assent	20 March 1678
Expired	2 July 1687
Repealed	28 July 1863
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Moss Troopers Act 1685
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act for Continuance of Three former Acts for Preventing of Theft and Rapine upon the Northerne Borders of England.
Citation	1 Ja. 2. c. 14
Dates
Royal assent	27 June 1685
Repealed	28 July 1863
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Moss Troopers Act 1695
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act to continue Foure former Acts for preventing Theft and Rapine upon the Northerne Borders of England.
Citation	7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 17
Dates
Royal assent	10 April 1696
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1867
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Moss-trooper; by Thomas Jones Barker

Much like the earlier Border reivers who had operated in the lawless region during the 16th century and were dealt with,[1] moss-troopers do not have a clear genesis. They gradually evolved, or reemerged, from the long running sociopolitical milieu of the Border. Mention of them appears suddenly in historical records and gives the false impression that they appeared suddenly, but the first statute passed to deal with them, the Moss Troopers Act 1662 (14 Cha. 2. c. 22), notes the moss-troopers to have been a long-running problem.[2]

With the 1662 act about to expire, the Cavalier Parliament passed the Moss Troopers Act 1666 (18 & 19 Cha. 2. c. 3). Under section two of this act, the benefit of clergy was taken away from those convicted, which generally meant a death sentence, or otherwise with judicial discretion, the notorious thieves and spoil-takers in Northumberland or Cumberland were to be transported to America, "there to remaine and not to returne".[3][4]

Many moss-troopers were disbanded or deserting soldiers from one of the Scottish armies of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They had kept their weapons and lived a life of brigandage, attacking both civilians and Parliamentary soldiers for supplies during the Royalist rising of 1653 to 1654 when English Parliamentarian troops under George Monck occupied Scotland. Moss-troopers usually operated in small bands, either on the fringes of the Highlands or in the border regions.[5] Many Highland lairds complained of moss-troopers' cattle-stealing and of how they incurred military reprisals against the Highlands as a whole.

Some moss-troopers may have had a national-political as well as an economic motivation, believing in resisting the Cromwellian occupation of Scotland – much as their Irish contemporaries, the "tories", in part resisted English occupation.