T92
��The Avknstrong Clan.
��Of the clan Armstrong this article will speak. It was one of the most noted, most numerous, and most power- ful of the Lowland clans. The section of country the Armstrongs occupied, being near the English border, was called the " Debateable Land," and though in Scotland, it was subject to the claims of England, and was often over- run by the armies of each kingdom, and sometimes stripped and despoiled by both. By the very necessities of their condition, and the troubled circum- stances in which they were placed by the lawlessness of the age, they were forced to resort to expedients not justifiable in a more enlightened era. Like the neighboring clans, they fol- lowed
"The simple plan, That they should take, who had the power, . And they should keep, who can."
It is interesting to note the origin and antiquity of the name Armstrong. It was, without doubt, conferred upon some individual of great physical strength, or to keep in perpetual re- membrance some act of devotion and bravery. This view of the subject is sustained by the tradition that a Scottish king, having his horse killed under him in battle, was immediately remounted by Fairbairn, his armor-bearer, who took the king by the thigh and set him on his saddle. For this timely assistance the king rewarded him with lands upon the border, and gave him the appella- tion of Armstrong, and assigned him for crest, an armed hand and arm ; in the left hand a leg and foot in armor, couped at the thigh, all proper. This crest is borne at the present day in the arms of some branches of the family. , The name is an ancient one, and is found spelled in forty-four different ways. It was born in the county of
��Cumberland, England, in 1235, or six hundred and fifty years ago ; at Ber- wick-on-Tweed in 1335. Letters of safe conduct were granted to William Armstrong in 1362 and 1363.
It is not till 1376 that any of the name can be identified as belonging to Liddesdale, in the "Debateable Country," but they may have been there many years before.
Though members of the family were found at the places before mentioned, yet they were only a few miles distant from the points inhabited by the great mass of the Armstrongs, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that they were members of the same great family.
Soon after 1376, Alexander and David Armstrong coine in view. Robert Armstrong and Margaret Temple, his wife, were in possession of a portion of a manor in Thorpe, England, in 1377. Mangerton was an important seat of the Armstrongs, and the residence of Thomas Armstrong, the chief of one of its branches and brother of Johnnie Armstrong, of Gil- nockie. The original deed to the family having been lost or destroyed, the town and lands were regranted by Francis, Earl of Bothwell, to Lancilot Armstrong, on the ninth of October, 1586, and remained in the possession of his descendants till about i 730.
Another important seat of the family was at the "Hollows," in Canobie, and on the bank of, or near, the river Esk. Here dwelt Johnnie Armstrong, some- times called " Gilnockie," a celebrated border chieftain, who caused both English and Scotch considerable trouble. He was treacherously taken prisoner, with many of his retainers, in 1530, by King James V of Scotland, and he and thirty-five of his men were hanged at Carlenrig. His name is
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