does this help
Debunking of some Beattie myths:
There is no relationship between the Beatties and the MacBeth clan. The MacBeth Tartan for the Beattie Clan has its origins in financial gail rather than in historic reality. The book of Tartans, the official source gives the Bethune and the MacDonald as the Tartans for Beattie.
The Beatties are definitely lowlanders, not highlianders. However, given the activites of reivers, it is not surprising to find some Beattie families in areas outside of border country.
Beattie may indeed be derived from Bate which in turn is a derivation of Bartholomew.
Ancestors of the Border Beatties were Saxon refuges from the Norman Conquest. They escaped from London or Northumberland in the eleventh century. In 1070 Princess Margaret of the English House of Alfred and her Saxon followers fled England from the onslaught of the Norman Conquest. Their ships were driven north to Scotland and the Firth of Forth. She was taken to the court of Malcolm III, King of Scotland in Dunfermline. Margaret married Malcolm and her followers setttled in the DumFriesshire area..
Others believe that Arkil of Northumberland who moved across the border in 1066 to escape the Normans was the founder of the sone of Bartholomew, Battisouns and Beatties of the Dumfriesshire area. Whichever story you believe, the Saxon origin is clear.
The town of Langholm in Dumfriesshire is where "the Beattie are of the Borders is centered...Being seventeen miles north of Hadrian's Wall and only eight miles from the present day England - Scotland border, it has seen a great deal of varied history.
Unlike some Reiver families, the Beatties have always been on the Scottish side of the border and that Northumberland English has been predominant on both sides of the border.
1455 - The Beatties aid Red Douglas in the overthrow of Black Douglas at the battle of Arkinhom, 1 May 1455. As a reward King James II (1437-1460) made several grants of land to the Beatties for their services to the Crown. This firmly established the family around Langholm and the Eskdale area.
1504 - Adam Batie was hanged by the criminal court at Dumfries for being part of the "king's rebels...of Eskdale.."
1537 - the year of the greatest dispersal of Beatties from Langholm with migrations to the north of Scotland, to Ireland and to Galloway. Some evidently remained in the area also. See story at the end of this list.
1544 - Beatties and other Border clans came under the English. 116 Beatties were noted under the leadership of a Sander Beattie.
1547-48 - Under English leadership -the Lennoxes, Armstrongs, Beatties, and Littles sacked and burned the town of Annan.
1585 - The Maxwells, Armstrongs, Scots, Beatties and Littles attacked the Johnstone castle of Lockwood.
1598 - more Beatties were dispersed and the clan was effectively broken up. Some claim they went to Northumberland in England from where they had migrated five hundred years earlier.
1618 - the list of "last of the Border blackguards" included the family name of Beattie.
1537 King James V (1513-1542) stripped the Beatties of Eskdale of their lands and gave the lands to Robert Lord Maxwell. Seems that when Maxwell summoned the Beatties to acknowledge him as their feudal superior, the Beatties declared the royal grant was unjust. As the Beatties were mustering against him Ronald Beattie, the chief, gave Maxwell a fast, white mare to flee on. Maxwell shortly sold the lands to Scott, Warden of the Middle Marches. Scott and his men seized the Beattie possessions and divided up the 40-50 Beattie estates. Maxwell, however, appealed to Scott to reward Ronald Beattie for saving Maxwell's life. As a result, Beattie was given the perpetual tenant-right of Watcarrick, one mile south of Eskdalemuir. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) states that the Beattie descendants continued to occupy Watcarrick into the 19th century.
In 1988 there were 2,213 Beattie households in Scotland and 478 in England.
The Reiver families have been given somewhat of a bad rap. They typically did not kill....just plundered, burnt, stole and carried off young women! So the arsonists, abductors, and thieves are acquitted of murder!
One informative point for researchers made is that due to the centuries of reiving/raiding in the Border area early church records do not exist. The Armstrongs by themselves supposedly burned over 100 churches.
onyack
I had a similar quest aboot six months ago and got a good few tips 
