William Armstrong (1565–1649), known as Christie's Will, was a Scottish Borders freebooter of the 17th century, celebrated in a ballad by Sir Walter Scott.
[1] Some time afterwards a lawsuit, in which the Earl of Traquair was a party, was on for trial in the Court of Session, Edinburgh.
Armstrong, therefore, kidnapped the judge at Leith Sands, where he was taking his usual exercise on horseback, and conveyed him blindfold to an old castle, the tower of Graham, on the Dryfe Water, near Moffat.
[1] Armstrong is said also to have been employed by Traquair, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, in conveying a packet to the king, and on his return to have made his escape at Carlisle from the pursuit of Cromwell's soldiers by springing his horse over the parapet of the bridge that crosses the Eden, which was then in flood.
It is not impossible that the tombstone discovered in the churchyard of Sark, supposed at one time to be that of "Kinmont Willie", may really commemorate Christie's Will.