15th February 1540 saw James V grant a letter under the Privy Seal to Johnny Faa confirming his authority over the Egyptians, or “Gypsies” in Scotland calling on all sheriffs in the country to “…assist him in executione of justice upoun his company and folkis.”.
Whilst it is believed that the Gypsies first came into Scotland about the middle of the 15th century, the first recorded reference to the ‘Egyptians’ would appear to be in 1492, in the reign of James IV, when an entry in the Book of the Lord High Treasurer records a payment to Peter Ker of four shillings, to go to the king at Hunthall, to get letters subscribed to the 'King of Rowmais’. Two days after, a payment of twenty pounds was made at the king’s command to the messenger of the 'King of Rowmais’.
They were charged to help Johnnie capture and punish a group of gypsies under the leadership of Sebastaine (or Sebastiane) Lalow and including two men of the name Bailzow. (Bailzow is believed to be Baillie, of which name people appear at Yetholm.)
This protection was renewed, in 1553, during the regency of Mary of Guise.
By the time Mary Queen of Scots had come and gone and James VI came to the throne attitudes had changed and just like he did with the witchcraft act he began persecuting the Gypsies, in 1571, an Act of stringency was passed upon them and all the hangers-on which they attracted - bards, minstrels and vagabond scholars. During the next thirty-three years the penalties on the Gypsies increased, just as in England. The Court Records show how hanging, drowning and being deported were the order of the day for those convicted of being Gypsies.
An Act passed in 1579 refers to the gypsies as 'the idle peopil calling themselves Egyptians’.
This Act included the requirement that any person found to be a gypsy was to be nailed to a tree by the ears, and thereafter to have the said ears cut off.
In 1603, the Privy Council ordered the entire race of gypsies to leave Scotland by a certain date, never to return on pain of death.
