THE WILD SCOTS & PICTS OF GALLOWAY (Gipsies) & THE EGYPTIANS ACT 1530
In reciting the victories of the Roman general Theodosius, Claudian says—
“Ille leves Mauros, nec falso nomine Pictos Edomuit”—
Now, when Claudian wrote, and for a long time after, Maurus signified a great deal more than “a native of Mauritania”
Any Latin dictionary,—any old one, at least,—will tell you that Maurus is “a moor,” a “blackamoor,” or “a tawny-moor”
And Shakespeare uses the word "moor” as a synonym for "negro”
As that last word bears nowadays a somewhat restricted meaning, it may be better to take the old-fashioned “blackamoor” as the nearest English rendering of Maurus, signifying thereby any black or brown skinned man…
Consequently, the translation of Claudian’s line is this—
“He subdued the nimble blackamoors, not wrongly named “the painted people”
Claudian's lines have revealed to us that the historical Picti of Britain were, ethnologically, Mauri: being Picti only by custom…
Therefore the Picts of Galloway were the Moors of Galloway…
“Since we see that the people known to us specially as “Picts” (the Picti of Claudian) were of black complexion, it becomes a question wether their chief allies—the Early Scots—were not of a kindred hue”
This seems to be distinctly pointed out by Gildas, when he chronicles the arrival of “a duskish swarm of vermin, or hideous crew of Scots and Picts, somewhat different in manners, but all alike thirsting blood”
The precise words used by the monkish chronicler are these—Tetri Scotorum Pictorumque greges—“the black herds of Scots and Picts”
When he speaks of the black herds of Scots and Picts, we have every right to believe that in so speaking of them he depicted them truly…
The fourth century Scots, then, being undistinguishable from the general “black herd” that made up the Scoto-Pictish army, were themselves of the same complexion as the Picts Proper. That is to say, they, also, were Mauri, or Moors…
“Deucaledones, & Dicaledon; the name of a people in Alba: they were partly Scots and partly Picts. The Scots were so called from their swarthy complexion”
SOURCE;
(Historiæ Scoticæ Nomenclatura Latino-vernacula; 1697)
The word Swarthy or Swart derives from ‘Schwarz’ or ‘Schwartz’ which means “to be black; black man, and negro
SOURCE;
(Flügel-Schmidt-Tanger, a Dictionary of the English and German Languages for Home and School; 1905)
The Egyptians Act 1530 (22 Hen. 8. c. 10) was an Act passed by the Parliament of England in 1531 to expel the "outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians"
The Act accused “gipsies” of using "crafty and subtle devices" to deceive people, notably by claiming to tell fortunes whilst also allegedly frequently committing felonies such as robbery…
The statute forbade any more “gipsies” from entering the realm and gave those already in England sixteen days' notice to depart from the realm…
After the Egyptians Act of 1530 was passed, the effect that it was supposed to have did not meet the expectations the people of England thought it would over the course of a few years…
Because of that, Mary I passed the Egyptians Act of 1554 with hopes that it would take a larger effect on the Egyptians still lingering in England…
The Egyptians Act of 1530 and 1554 were the last acts passed targeting "Egyptians" in the name itself, but in the following years, issues of vagrancy were still on the rise…
Due to the name of Egyptians and what the people of England thought of them, they were considered wanderers and vagrant and therefore still a pressing issue to England…
For a 70 year period from 1530 to 1598, there were four statutes that addressed issues regarding vagrancy and people who called themselves "Egyptians"
“Of the dress of Gipsies (regarded as such) I have seen no picture at such an early date as this. But the remarks made upon this point, in the Encyclopedia article, indicate a fashion closely resembling that of Martin’s Islanders…”
“Gipsies formerly had a distinctive costume, consisting of a turban like headdress of many colors, together with a large cloak, worn after the fashion of a toga, over a long loose under-skirt . . .The English gipsy woman may be known by her bright silk handkerchief, her curiously plaited hair, her massy rings, her coral or bead necklace, and by the monging-guno, a tablecloth arranged bagwise over her back”
“In England the females are generally distinguished by a cloak, grey or red, and a colored kerchief tied around the head…”
“Outwardly as within Gipsies present strong contrasts, some being strangely hideous, others very beautiful, though not with a regular conventional beauty. . . The hair, black or dark brown, inclines to coarseness, is often frizzled, and does not soon to grey; the complexion, a tawny olive, was compared by the Plymouth Pilgrims (1622) to that of the Indians of North America…”
“The Gipsies then, whom we have already seen described as “Moors”, were also known as “Saracens”, the terms being indifferently used in heraldry and in the old romances…”
“Thus, the Moors or Saracens, the Danes and other kindred races, and the Gipsies are virtually the same people under different names…”
“And there is great deal in the foregoing description to remind one of what has already been said regarding Ancient Britons, with whom, as Moors, Saracens, and Hungarians, or Ogres, or Cimbri, or Danes, they are historically identified…”
While the “naked men living in caves”, who were “blubber lipped” and men with “plaited hair”, against whom the Celtic legendary heroes fought, are in all these respects Gipsies: and under either name are one with the naked Wild or Black-Irishmen, with their “glibbed” locks, described by Derrick and Spencer…”
“And again, the ugly Moors of heraldry, with their black skins, thick lips, and “pearls pendant” are virtually the same as the ear-ringed black and hideous Egyptians who trooped into Bologna about five centuries ago…”
“So that the strolling mountebanks and minstrels of the days of John of Rampayne, wether descended from pre-Roman “Moors”, or from later “black heathen” invaders, were pretty clearly of this race…”
“The legend shows them to be black, and to this very day you may see the racial characteristics in the ear-rings and gay colors of the nomadic, open-air juggler, with his oily, plaited hair, and perhaps also in the long side locks which are still dear to the “Putney Pet” fraternity…”
“In an account of the Gipsies of the Pyrenees (quoted by Simson, p. 88) one sees again the same “blubber-lipped” race, the Saracens and Moors of tradition and of heraldry.”
“The Gitanos are tanned like mulattos. . . Their features are irregular. . .They have the mouth very wide, thick lips, and high cheekbones”
“Again—because the fifteenth century Gipsies of Galloway were “Moors”, and the Moors were Picts “nec falso nomine Pictos”, those Galloway Gipsies were Picts…
The Gipsies, then—not to go further into details—when accepted as numerous, warlike, and distinctly black people, living an individual existence in various districts of the British Islands during the past few centuries, but gradually becoming mingled with the white races, announce themselves very clearly as the progenitors, on one side, of all the melanochroi of our country…
These [British Gipsies], it is said by one of their historians, regard themselves as a compound of many races,—“dreadfully mixed”, is the expression they employ. “Pharaohs folk”, “Egyptians”, and (as often) “Ethiopians”, are the racial titles they apply to themselves in Scotland; and the resemblances even yet borne by them to these ancient peoples are many…
SOURCE;
(David MacRitchie; ‘Ancient and Modern Britons Vol. 1; 1884)
