A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
[156] This long standing feud between the Baillies and the Faas is
notorious. In paying a visit to a family of English Gipsies in the
United States, the head of the family said to me: "You must really
excuse us to-day. It's the Faas and Baillies over again; it will be
all I can do to keep them from coming to blows." The noise inside of
the house was frightful. There had been a "difficulty" between two
families in consequence of some gossip about one of the parties before
marriage, which the families were sifting to the bottom.
The Faas and their partisans, on reading this work, will not overwell
relish the prominence given to the Baillie clan.--ED.
In Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, of the 4th August, 1774, the following
notice is taken of this tribe, which shows the fear which persons of
respectability entertained for them: "The descendants of this Lord of
Little Egypt continued to travel about in Scotland till the beginning of
this century, mostly about the southern Border; and I am most credibly
informed that one, Henry Faa, was received, and ate at the tables of
people in public office, and that men of considerable fortune paid him a
gratuity, called blackmail, in order to have their goods protected from
thieves."
One of the Faas rose to great eminence in the mercantile world, and was
connected by marriage with Scotch families of the rank of baronets. This
family was the highly respectable one of Fall, now extinct, general
merchants in Dunbar, who were originally members of the Gipsy family at
Yetholm. So far back as about the year 1670, one of the baillies of
Dunbar was of the surname of Faa, spelled exactly as the Gipsy name, as
appears by the Rev. J. Blackadder's Memoirs. On the 18th of May, 1734,
Captain James Fall, of Dunbar, was elected member of parliament for the
Dunbar district of burghs. On the 28th of May, 1741, Captain Fall was
again elected member for the same burghs; but, there being a double
return, Sir Hew Dalrymple ousted him. The family of Fall gave Dunbar
provosts and baillies, and ruled the political interests of that burgh
for many years. When hearty over their cups, they often mentioned their
origin; and, to perpetuate the memory of their descent from the family
of Faa, at Yetholm, the late Mrs. Fall, of Dunbar, whose husband was
provost of the town, had the whole family, with their asses, &c., &c.,
as they took their departure from Yetholm, represented, by herself, in
needle-work, or tapestry.[157] The particulars, or details, of this
family group were derived from her husband, who had the facts from his
grandfather, one of the individuals represented in the piece. A
respectable aged gentleman, yet living in Dunbar, has often seen this
family piece of the Falls, and had its details pointed out and explained
to him by Mrs. Fall herself.[158]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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