He was the owner of lands on the River Tweed from which the family took their name, and even then the family connections and possessions were widespread and powerful Finlay de Twydyn appears in the Ragman Rolls of 1296 swearing fealty to King Edward I of England,[3] and his son Roger of Twydyn, received a charter to the house and lands of Drumelzier around 1320.

[3] The main centre of the Tweedie family until the 17th century was at Drummelzier, with other branches living at Wrae, Stobo, Dreva, Fruid and other forts and peel towers along the valley.

The Tweedies would charge tolls on travellers passing through their territory, be accused or the victims of cattle rustling, and become embroiled in affrays, often fatal, in the streets of Edinburgh.

[3] The ancient quarrel with the Veitches still broke out at times, and in 1611 attracted the notice of King James, one of whose last acts before leaving for England was to visit the district of Upper Tweedale with a view to staunching this bloody feud.

The Tweedies of Oliver Castle descend from a younger son of Drumelzier and they obtained their lands in the parish of Tweedsmuir from the preceptor of Torphichen in the 14th century.

He and Adam Tweedie were among the body of armed men who, headed by Darnley, Morton, Ruthven, and others, on the night of 9 March 1566, rushed into the Palace at Holyrood and in the Queen's presence assassinated David Rizzio, her foreign Secretary and favourite musician.

In 1745 the Laird of that time, Thomas Tweedie, and other members of the family were careful to avoid any involvement in the Jacobite rising when Highland clans crossed the valley.

However Tweedies attestation to the considerate and respectful behaviour Captain John Burnet of Colonel Grant's Highland Regiment on that occasion may have contributed to the latter's subsequent pardon.

His brother Maurice Tweedie (1787–1867) was a major general in the Indian Army who was Resident at Tanjore, served through the Coorg Campaign and other fighting, and commanded troops at Penang, Singapore, and Malacca.

Several others with the name Tweedie, identified in Peebles, surrounding areas of Peebleshire and Edinburgh up to the 19th century are most likely offshoots of the Tweed valley family.

The branch descends from a George Twedye, born c. 1430, who was recorded in the Herald's Visitation of Essex 1558 and 1612 as coming "owt of Scotland frome a howse called Dromelzane".

His memorial describes him as a distinguished military commander first under Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory in suppressing the tumults of the north of England, next under the invincible hero the Lord Baron de Willoughby in France, and lastly under the auspices of the illustrious Earl of Leicester, in the Netherlands, and was Warden of the military works at Bergen-op-Zoom.