[here a view looking back up the Slitrig to a Drumlanrig Bridge - still two arches, though widened in 1828 - originally it was only one cart wide with a recess on either side -  and altered in 1900 to lighten the look of the bridge by replacing the stone parapet by open ironwork.
Info from Douglas Scott's Hawick Word Book, photo from riverwatcher05 on Flickr]

The bridge had been paid for by public subscription and opened by the Toun Piper and the drums and fifes, with the Bailies and Council processing behind. Baillie Hardie gave a speech – and Cornet Richardson waved the Flag on top of the bridge.

Song singing? very likely – but not Teribus as we know it.

Whatever was sung, it wasn’t It certainly wasn’t “our” Teribus “Scotia felt thine ire, O Odin!….”
James Hogg’s “New Common-Riding Song” was sung for the first time only in 1819.

An older common riding song was one written by Arthur Balbirnie, a foreman dyer at the Orrock Place carpet factory and originally from Dunfermline – “We’ll a’ hie to the muir a-riding……… Here from Robert Wlson’s 1825 Sketch of the History of Hawick [full text is on Google Books, this is on page 347]

Though this sings quite nicely to the current Teribus tune, Balbirnie’s words wouldn’t have been written until the 1790′s – he wasn’t working in Hawick until then. Certainly not in the 1770′s.

I haven’t come across any older version of the words – they may never have been written down until Balbirnie came to the town.  And maybe he tidied them up a bit – the first line sounds OK – though the next three are a bit forced -  and the chorus sounds pretty natural, but the language of the verses ?? “Drumlanrig gave it for providing / ancestors of martial order / to drive the English off our border” is pretty convoluted grammatically – and the “dear memorial of our valour” line doesn’t sound at all Hawick.

Maybe it was the tune which was the important thing in the first instance, and was the town song, and the words came afterwards.

[My wife is from Linlithgow, and their "Rock and the Row and the Wee Pickle Tow"does have words, but it is the tune which gets Black Bitches going.

Although I think of "Teribus" as a fife and drum tune - here by the Fife and Drums in Drumlanrig Square

with the tune whistling away above the ratt-tat-tatting of the drums, you don't really "need" the words.

Before the Fife and Drums started up, Teribus would have been played on the border pipes by the Toun Piper - and it was written down by Walter Ballantyne the Toun Piper for the first time in 1777.

This Youtube clip gives us that 1777 version of Teribus played on the border pipes by Matt Seattle and Bill Telfer

Matt says of the 1777 tune that

it is the most structurally sound version of all, and very satisfying to play on the pipes. Simple but powerful.

and since I originally posted, he and Bill have a further version of the 1777 Teribus on Youtube

So in 1777, maybe Cornet James Richardson didn't actually sing any words to Teribus; but he would have waved the Flag while the Toun Piper played Teribus, as he did at the opening of the Bridge, maybe in the Selkirk way .

And it wouldn't be until 1825 that the first words were added, so he had none to sing.

To get back to Cornets, and what else do I know about James Richardson? [Courtesy - as always - of the Hawick Word Book!]

Cornet James Richardson would have been born about 1750-1760, and probably in Hawick
The cornets list describes him as a wool merchant – and he still was in 1796 when he was a witness to the birth of merchant George Gray and Mary Potts’ daughter Jane Gray.
I have nothing of him as Cornet – apart from his probable flag waving.
It is apallingly slipshod to use the LDS family search – but maybe he married Katherine Brydon on 1 January 1785, when he would have been about 25-35.
The Edinburgh Gazette on January 1821 has a notice to the creditors of James and William Richardson , late wool mechants and manufacturers as a company and James as an individual advising that the solicitor would be in the Tower Inn to pay a fiunal dividend from the estates. The Hawick Word Book – and it is always right! – has James and his brother William contributing to the war against France in 1799, and in partnership with William at the Whusky Hooses mill built in 1788 at 14 Slitrig Cescent, Hawick  There, the Richardsons dealt in wool; and manufactured carpets; and dealt in salt, tar and whisky – before the firm folded sometime around 1812, with the final winding up in 1821 – the Whisky Houses premises were  bought in about 1815 by the Pringles which may have signalled the end of the company.

Just as we have nicknames for bankers now , so it was then – he was “Old Cash”.

He was about the first one in Hawick – becoming agent for the Bank of Scotland in 1792 [though he may just have been pipped at the the post by the British Linen Company Bank].
He was a merchant of some description, and so presumably becoming a bank agent solved a problem for him and the Bank. For him, he had something to do his cash at the end of the day – before the days of night safes and so on – he lent it to other people on the bank’s behalf, and charged them interest. And for the Bank, as a merchant William would have secure storage – so somewhere to store the money which customers would want to deposit.
Roughly the same principle applies now as supermarkets are happy to offer cashback to debit card customers, because it means that the supermarket has less cash to bag up and take to the bank, where they are charged a paying-in fee.
But they don’t always give cash back, as my aged mother found out when she paid for her messages with cash – and then tried asking for £30 cash-back. It’s a different world up Waverley Terrace!

William was unmarried, and lived till 1808, so must only have taken to banking late in life, in his mid 50s.

His other interests included books, and the Church – he was the principal subscriber to building an addition to the Old Wilton Church in 1800 [Princes Street - demolished 1963]

And there are two poems about him – one about him as the Laird of Coffer Ha’, referring to the chest he kept the Bank money in – and this more personal tribute to Old Cash –

Banker Cash, a daintie carl
Wha was ower guid for sic a warl’;
Guid-natured soul! His doings tell,
He thought a’ ithers like himsel’ -
Trustworthy, honest, just and good,
Disinterested, naeways proud,
Had mony frien’s an’ ne’er a foe,
Nane could hate him that did him know;
For ne’er a neighbour would he wrang,
He’s sooner in  a halter hang;
Sae ilka bodies pickle gear
Was lodg’d wi’ him without a fear

Rev David Waters

The Rev Waters was a Hawick man, went to school in Damside, a spinner at Lynnwood Mill,  and the third person in the town to sign the Total Abstinence Pledge. He went into the ministry from evangelical meetings in the Cross Wynd Church – but died in Shipley, Bradford.

I don’t have anything else to illustrate the life of the 1758 Cornet – but Rev Waters tells us all we need to know about William Oliver in his poem – he was a worthy Cornet indeed

The New Daily Advertiser of 5 June 1778 reported a major robbery from the Bull and Mouth Inn in Holborn early that Sunday morning.

The Bull and Mouth crops up often in the trial records of the Old Bailey. I can’t find any trial record relating to the theft of our Cornet’s watches, but the trial of Elizabeth McDougal in December 1789 for theft from the Bull and Mouth Inn is typica

Found guilty of the Grand Larceny of what we would call second hand clothes valued at £2, she was transported to Australia for 7 years, arriving in 1791 on the Third Fleet

But the theft which involved our Cornet’s watches was more serious, with £21 available from the Blind Beak Sir John Fielding for information. The haul was also considerable – £15 of gold and silver, 24 yards of brocade and other costly materials, a great many boxes and parcels broken open – and 10 silver watches, including four numbered pieces made by James Wilson of Hawick – and Hawick Cornet in 1781.

There is some information available about him – but it would cost £10 to see the record, so I won’t be doing that anytime soon.

The photo below isn’t his long case clock, but a fine one by John Turnbull of Hawick of the same period [who may have been related to the clockmaker James Turnbull,  Cornet in 1776. OK - I admit that this is pure speculation]

James Wilson’s two longcase clocks would be very much in the same fashion, though presumably he would have his own style.

The pocket watches of this date would be similar to this one [here Perth in 1790]

And that is it, I am afraid – I can’t find anyone tried at the Old Bailey for the robbery, I don’t have any information on James Wilson’s whereabouts in Hawick, or a marriage, or a birth [though there is a likely one recorded on 18 May 1760, to father Robert Wilson and Sarah Scott]

All I know about him is that he had produced at around 51 silver watches by 1778 [unless he started his numbering system at , say 10 so that people wouldn't be put off buying his first efforts], and he later produced at least one long case clock.
And we know roughly what his watches looked like, and have a better idea of the long case clocks from one made by John Turnbull [and I cling to the idea that he might ,just might, be in some way related to the 1776 clockmaker Cornet James Turnbull.

First the very Biblical sounding name – Ekron is a city in Canaan.
In very bible-literate times, it could be that the reference below in 1 Samuel 5:1 would be well known – it certainly would attract the attention of any young lads if used as a text in a sermon

And the Philistines took The Ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. …….. But the hand of The Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods … And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The Ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us …. said, What shall we do with The Ark of the God of Israel?  ……
And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of The Lord was against the city …  and he smote the men of the city and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore they sent The Ark of God to Ekron.” ….  the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

There is always a good story in the Bible – though not so much fun if your name was Ekron? Is this where the “Blast” nickname came from – some response to repeated teasing?  or did the poor man really suffer? All highly fanciful, I am afraid.

There have been Ekrons since at least 1700 in Hawick, and although a lot left for South Africa  including a James Ekron who left with the Pringle Party in 1820 [and in 1832 got two years hard labour for murder] – but back to Cornet James Ekron.

James was, probably, a Mason; and a bookseller in Hawick.

Born 23 October 1757, the son of William Ekron and Elizabeth Dobbie,  he married Helen Turnbull on 7 March 1781 , two years after he had been Cornet, and daughter Janet was born in 1782. Don’t know where he lived, but in 1784, Messrs James Ekron, Hawick sold the first books published in Hawick

The first book bearing Caw’s imprint of which I have any record was published in Hawick in 1783, and is entitled ” The True State of the unhappy controversy about the Burgess Oath, being a discourse delivered before the Associate Presbytery of Earlston, at Kelso, the 8th day of October 1782, etc., by John Young. Hawick printed by George Caw. Sold by the Author, and at the printing office. East End of the town. i(,i>cc,Lxxxiii.” 12fflo, pp. iv., 60.
This was followed in 1784 by “A display of genuine Christianity, and Christian love, &c. By the late Reverend James Hervey, A.M. Hawick : Printed and sold by Geo. Caw. Sold also by Messrs James Ekron, Hawick ; C. Elliot, Edinburgh, &c. M,i)cc,Lxxxiy.” 12mo, pp. iv.,156.
A copy of this little volume which lies before me has the following quaint inscription in the autograph of one of the Hawick publishers of the work:
” When this you see, Remember me,
James Ekron.”

The christian / biblical theme again – possibly the “Blast” indicates that he tended to proclaim his faith?? Or some joke about the Burgess Oath??

Back to where he lived or worked: George Caw sold his books from the “printing office East End of the town” – so this end of the High Street, Bourtree Place wasn’t there yet, and just a scattering on Bridge Street – maybe James Ekron was at the West End?? – maybe even the Sandbed, in W & J Kennedy’s shop [firm started in 1829] ?????? Sorry – highly fanciful.

Blast was a very 18th Century Poetical phrase – and there could be a connection with James being a bookseller?

The obvious poet would be Robert Burns Cauld Is The E’enin Blast

1.Cauld is the e’enin blast
O’ Boreas o’er the pool,
An’ dawin, it is dreary,
When birks are bare at Yule.
2.O, cauld blaws the e’enin blast,
When bitter bites the frost,
And in the mirk and dreary drift
The hills and glens are lost!
3.Ne’er sae murky blew the night
That drifted o’er the hill,
But bonie Peg-a-Ramsay
Gat grist to her mill.

so some sort of sly reference to a liaison with a Peg Ramsay ??
…. as featured in traditional song -

Bonny Peggy Ramsay that any man may see;
And bonny was her face with fair freckl’d eye;
Neat is her body made and she hath good skill,
And round are her bonny arms that work well at the mill.

chorus:
With a hey tro-lo-del, hey tro-lo-del,
Hey tro-lo-del, lil;
Bonny Peggy Ramsay that works well at the mill.

Up goes the hopper and in goes the corn
The wheel it goes about and the stones begin to turn.
The meal falls in the meal-trough and quickly does it fill
For Peggy is a bonny lass and works well at the mill.

and further back, in one of those long and very un-funny scenes in Shakespeare’s Twelth Night Act 2 Scene 3

SIR TOBY BELCH

My lady’s a Cataian, we are politicians, Malvolio’s
a Peg-a-Ramsey, and ‘Three merry men be we.
‘Am not I consanguineous? am I not of her blood?
Tillyvally. Lady!

Sings  ‘There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady!’

Clown

Beshrew me, the knight’s in admirable fooling.

Don’t give up the day job Toby!

Coming back to Robbie Burns – he didn’t write Cauld is the E’enin Blast until 1795, so unlikely source of the nickname. James Thomson 1700-1748 is a better bet  – his The Seasons [1726] was well known, and Rule Britannia! [1745] still is.

All together now -kep in tune, and with particular attention to the “loud blast” in verse 3

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves

and there are Blasts in the poem – [one of Marianne's inspirations in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility]

FOR, see! where Winter comes, himself, confest,
Striding the gloomy Blast. First Rains obscure

The dark, way-faring, Stranger, breathless, toils,
And climbs against the Blast –

NOW, Shepherds, to your helpless Charge be kind;
Baffle the raging Year, and fill their Penns
With Food, at will: lodge them below the Blast,

James Ekron – the Blast. Why the Blast, goodness knows – but I am going for the emerods.

____________________________________________________________________

And the one I had missed – and a much simpler and more obvious , could be

blast (blawst) n., arch. a smoke of tobacco, a
puff on a pipe – ‘Sit inti the fire an’ let’s hae a
blast’ [GW], a loud noise – ‘Gude kens how’twill
end at the last, But sairly I’m dreading a shiney;
I doot it will end in a blast’ For the deil’s i’ the
lasses o Limey’ [JoHa], v., poet. to smoke tobacco,
puff on a pipe – ‘Thus Habby an’ his loving spouse
Concerted matters in the house, While Grizzy at
the fire was blastin’, And Wattie aff his claes was
castin’ ’ [JR]. [Page 139, Hawick Word Book]

This is from the Douglas Scott’s modestly titled Hawick Word Book which is very much more than just a Word Book

Douglas Scott is encyclopaedic in his knowledge – so the simplest explanation and best researched explanation is probably the best – James Ekron was called The Blast, because he was well known for liking a smoke.

Clay Pipe – no cigarettes of course – and loose tobacco, still imported through Glasgow from the colonies in America, which were just about to win the war to become independent.