Subject: 'moss trooper' mounted raider / mercenary
Culture: Anglo-Scots Borderer
Setting: banditry, Border Marches 17thc
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Reid 2004 p92
"The term 'Moss trooper' is often, but quite erroneously applied to the Anglo-Scots border reiver of the sixteenth century. In fact there was an important difference between them in that most border reivers were otherwise respectable farmers and landowners, who from time to time set forth from their castles to steal livestock from their neighbours -- ideally but not invariably on the other side of the border. Moss troopers on the other hand were landless bandits, usually operating in wandering gangs, lurking in the mosses and maintaining themselves by highway robbery as well as cattle rustling. Initially the moss troopers who preyed on Cromwell's stragglers and despatch riders were just such bandits. But once they began to be organised under the command of regular officers such as Augustine (probably Captain Augustine Hoffman, formerly of Leslie's Horse), and Patrick Gordon, alias 'Steilhand the Mosser', they developed into first-class light cavalry."
Armor
* Livingstone 2000 p106
"A jacket, or short coat, plaited or institched with small pieces of iron, was usually worn by the peasantry of the Borders in their journeys from place to place, as well as in their occasional skirmishes with the moss-troopers, who were most probably equipped with the same sort of harness."
