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Seven, or five brothers YOUNG long ago moving through the Scottish/English borderlands to seek their fortunes.Taken up near Jedburgh and accused of sheep/horse stealing. All but two met with summary Jeddart justice. The two survivors entered Northumberland and there settled. One family became associated with the Ponteland/Felton district and the other with Wylam and the north bank of the Tyne. Apparently Irish (Mayo) and Presbyterian connections also and a link with the Anderson family in Ireland and Northumberland. If you have heard the story you are one of our Youngs - please get in touch for more.

Hello Kevin,

I'm intrigued by your story. My Youngs supposedly hail from the Kirk Yetholm area and according to family folklore were known to purloin the odd sheep now and again. A run-in with the law apparently saw two brothers head south. I've traced the line back to a John Young who married in Morpeth in 1843 aged 18 years. I presume that any Yetholm connection would be 1820s or earlier. John's father was a William Young possibly born 1790-1800ish. My greatgrandmother was Mary Anderson c1850.

When you say 'long ago' how long ago do you mean?

Regards,
Graeme

any of your young's end up in kent?

Hello Ponsalias,
Thanks for the reply. Dunno when, and Border Papers don't mention such an incident - but there were so many. We are well aware of the Kirk Yetholm possibility and already have a Blythe line reputedly from the Faa Blythes.
We pick up the Youngs in Ireland in Co. Mayo, with an Anderson connection.( please see Hollymount entry) John Young, born 1855; father also John Young and his father Edward Young. They worked for Andersons, with whose descendant, Bill, we are in contact. Story is both families came over from Northumberland to graze sheep and cattle after the famine.1855 John in his turn came over to Northumberland, labouring on the Tyne coal staithes for the coal owner the Marquis of Bute. and then as an aglab - ending up as a farm steward at Berwick Hill; died 1943. They seem to have been strong Presbyterians and the youngest John mentioned was a lay- preacher in Northumberland.
Faa was often a general term in use for those who came from KIrk Yetholm and there is a very similar tale of a group of Faa's meeting the same fate described.
So, what do you think? Could be? Can provide tree details and compare?
Kevin.

Hello Stephanie,

To be honest I haven't a clue. I have researched my own direct line but not that of my ancestors' siblings. My greatgrandfather had six brothers and I don't know where they or their families ended up but I suspect that they wouldn't have strayed too far from Northumberland and Durham.

Hi Kevin
There is an old unattributed story in my family about my father b1910, whose great grandfather, possibly John Young born in the borders about 1800-1810, who eventually found his way to Leeds by about 1825, the story goes that John's own father was hanged for sheepstealing, this must have been about 1815-20.
Any possible connection?

David

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for the reply. I don't think that the sets of brothers in our respective trees are the same although they seem to have had similar experiences. The brothers in my family folklore did have the family name Faa but the two who escaped and fled south both adopted the name Young. I am still unable to establish when this was or where exactly they fit into my tree. I had always assumed that it must have happened during mid-late 19th century but I have traced my tree back to well before then.

My gt-grandfather was Alexander Young born 1846 in Morpeth he had six brothers, William c1844, Thomas c1848, James c1851, Francis c1853, John c1860 and George c1863.

Alexander's father was John Young c1824, variously described as a basketmaker, dealer in earthenware and hawker.

According to John Young's marriage certificate (1843) his father was a William Young, d.o.b. uncertain but presumably around 1790-1800. My next task is to find out William's place and date of birth, unless of course he was the Faa in question and his birth wasn't registered.

I am not aware of any Irish connection.

Regards,
Graeme

Hello, David and Graeme
Thanks for replying. Well, both threads could belong in with our Youngs too; that sheep rustling story ties all of us in with the name Young. We even heard of a taxi driver named Young in the U.S. who knew the tale.
As to when, that's difficult: I would guess 18th cent. would be more likely. There is an account of the Faa version in "Wilson's Tales of the Borders" that you might not have seen. I did a synopsis of it for a family hist. journal some time ago if you haven't read it.
One last thing - in our story the Youngs came out of Scotland, but oddly Ayreshire is suggested. Still well within the Faa,s range.
Keep in touch, please. Kevin

Hello Kevin,

I was intrigued by your story so did a google book search and found the following snippet.

MERRILIES, MEG, in Sir Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering (1815), is Jean GORDON (?1670-/1745) A Gypsy born at Kirk-Yetholm, on the Roxburgh/Northumberland border,she married Patrick Faa, a member of Scotland’s most notable nomad family.

All but one of her numerous sons were hanged (three for sheep-stealing).

another snippet says they were hung with their wives. Another says her husband was transported for fire-raising.

From stories told by my mother, who was born and bred in Newcastle, there were a family there named YOUNG who were Gypsies....Benwell area ( sorry I know no more about them ).

There is also a poem written about her by John Keats

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=11J8nuicYPMC&pg=PA31&dq=Meg+Merrilees&as_brr=0&sig=shCHROl3p9Gd9Zq5l2M2_xBmduU#PPA31,M1

UPDATE:
I have just found the following which should interest you.

The Yetholm gipsies have been well described by Sir Walter Scott, by Mr. Smith of Kelso, and by a writer in some of the early numbers of Black- wood's Magazine; and many curious and interesting stories have been told of them. Some of these were in no small degree romantic; and one of the females of the race has been immortalized by Sir Walter as the Meg Merrilees of " Guy Mannering." The name of this person was Jean Gordon; she was no doubt the real prototype of the character of Meg Merrilees, and was known to Sir Walter's father, though her grand-daughter Madge, or Marjory Gordon, whom he remembered seeing when a boy, was in all probability the individual who sat to the author as the representative of her person. This latter personage, Madge, was married to a man of the name of Young, and is still remem- bered, says Mr. Baird in his account of the parish of Yetholm, in the " New Statistical Account of Scotland" (written in 1835), "by many in Kirk Yetholm—a woman of remarkable stature and striking appearance." All her children were registered in the session records of baptisms, as were also most of those of the celebrated Will Faa, who long ruled as king of the gipsies in the south of Scotland, and whose family amounted to the number of twenty-two or twenty-four. The minister of the parish seems generally to have been greatly respected by this lawless people.

Just add the following into the google book search and you will be able to download the book in PDF format.

Memoir of the Late REv. John Baird, Minister of Yetholm, Roxburghshire, Written and published by William Baird 1862




Susan

I also found the following

APRIL 21 1855. NOTES AND QUERIES

by Martim de Albuquerque - 1855

Death of a Descendant of Meg Merrilees-----
Meg Gordon, relict of William Young, died at Greenlaw on the 21st of February, aged eighty. William Young and his gipsy progenitors have been known for generations all along the borders of Scotland and England either as horners, muggers, or besom and basket makers. His relict, Meg Gordon, belongs to the same race, and is a lineal descendant of the Meg Merrilees, or Jean Gordon, one of the principal characters in Sir Walter Scott's novel of Guy Mannering. She, like many of her tribe, either had, or pretended to have, a knowledge of palmistry.

so she would have been born in 1775


I deleted the post below. GR playing up and was just a replica of this post

This book from Google books ( downloadable ) has all about The Faas/FAWs and Jean Gordon..And the YOUNGS.her youngest son was Thomas according to this book The baptisms of Yetholm have Alexander a one of the sons

Enter below into the google books search engine

A new, improved, and authentic life of James Allan. With notes by E. Mackenzie

Hello Susan,

Thanks for the various suggestions. My original source of information was the Scottish Gypsies website which is fairly comprehensive:

http://www.scottishgypsies.co.uk/

It's obvious that there were several large Faa and Young families closely entwined over many years and that at times the names were interchangeable. It doesn't help that the same christian names crop up time after time. I imagine that I'm going to struggle if I ever get back that far.

Regards,
Graeme

Graeme, David and Susan,
Thanks for the wealth of info. The background fills in very nicely and yes I have seen some of the sources related - lot of digging into our pasts there.
I did come across one reference to an unconfirmed date for the hanging affair: it appeared in an article on the Yetholm Gypsies in another family history journal in1966; the event was given as happening in1730 - but no attribution listed.
All I can leave you with is the names of the Mayo Youngs, who we believe came from Northumberland at sometime in the mid 1850s:
John Young, father Edward, marries Mary O'Neill (widow) in1854, Hollymount. Their children - John b. 1855, who settles back in Nbld. Margaret b. 1856, no further record. Mary b.1861, marries Charles James Leech ( a butler) father Charles James also. Our descent is from John jun.
Many thanks to all for the work and info.
Kevin