hobilers

The spearmen or lancers were chiefly recruited on the marches of Northumberland from the hardy race of border warriors; the mounted bowmen or hobilers were generally natives of Chester or North Wales.

A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Volume 1 Thomas D'Arcy McGee 1846

The spearmen or lancers were chiefly recruited on the marches of Northumberland from the hardy race of border warriors; the mounted bowmen or hobilers were generally natives of Chester or North Wales.

A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete Thomas D'Arcy McGee 1846

The border men, who used to make such furious raids and forays, have now come to regard each other, across the imaginary line which divides them, as friends and neighbours; and they meet as competitors for victory only at agricultural meetings, where they strive to win prizes for the biggest turnips or the most effective reaping-machines; while the men who followed their Johnstone or Armstrong chiefs as prickers or hobilers to the fray have, like Telford, crossed the border with powers of road-making and bridge-building which have proved a source of increased civilization and well-being to the population of the entire United Kingdom.

The Life of Thomas Telford Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904 1867