In 1587, an act of Scottish Parliament condemned certain border families and clans for their lawlessness. Later, in 1603, when the crowns of Scotland and England were united under James VI of Scotland, he found it expedient to disperse the unruly border clans to England, northern Scotland and to Ireland. Some were even banished directly to the Colonies. In 1246, six chiefs from the Scottish side of the border met with an equal number of their counterparts from the English side at Carlisle, where they drafted a unique set of laws governing all the border clans.

As the centuries passed, Scotland and England moved closer to political unity, which finally occurred with the accession of King James I in 1603. This trend was accompanied by an increasing effort to bring the lawless clans of the borderland under control. In 1587, an act of Scottish Parliament proscribed a number of families as "unruly border clans." Many of these border families were banished to other parts of England, the north of Scotland, and Ireland, where many of them rose to some political power.