196
��The Armstrong Clan.
��November i, 1696, as he went from Kirk after sermon ; aged twenty years.'
There were also buried Tliomas, George, VViUiam, and Robert Arm- strong, with many others of their race.
The arms were carved on some of the stones. The crest : A hand with dagger.
The following describes the early arms of some of the clan Armstrong, and, with slight variations, were borne by various branches of the family : —
Arms. An arm ppr. habited gu. issuing out from the side of the escutch- eon, and holding the lower part of a broken tree eradicated, vert, the top leaning to the dexter angle.
At Stubholm, near Langholm, was born the great wit of the clan, Archie Armstrong.
Having stolen a sheep, he was so closely followed by the enraged shep- herd that he had only time to reach his home and deposit the carcass of the sheep in the cradle, when the shepherd entered and accused him of the theft ; but Archie assumed an air of innocence anti, in the character of nurse, deliber- ately entailed upon himself the curse contained in these lines: —
"' If e'er I did sae fause a feat As thin my niebour's faulds, May I be doom'd the flesh to eat, This vera cradle haulds.' "
He subsequently became jester to His Majesty Charles I ; but was dis- missed in disgrace for the poignancy of his wit and keen satire ; his subjects being members of the nobility.
Though this clan was in great strength upon the border several cen- turies ago, yet numerous branches or colonies, springing from the parent stock, located, at an early date, in the northern counties of England. One
��settled at Corby, Lincolnshire, another at Thorpe, Nottinghamshire, and another in Yorkshire.
The race is not numerous in the locality in which it originated, yet many members of it are found in England, great numbers in Ireland, and not a few in the United States and tlie British Provinces. It is safe to assert that every person of the name of Armstrong, who rightfully bears that name, is descended from the powerful clan on the border in the " Debateable Country." *
Soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, William Armstrong, of the Mangerton branch, settled in the county of Fermanaugh, Ireland. Soon after, his nephew, Andrew Armstrong, joined him, and they were the founders of a numerous and prominent race.
The Armstrongs of Ballycumber, county Clare, are from the Mangerton fiimily. The Armstrongs of Gallen, Kings County, as well as those of Garry Castle and of Castle Iver, Kings County, are descended from " Gilnockie " Arm- strong.
Major A. Armstrong, at whose pleasant home, "Gilnockie," West- combe Park, Blackheath, S. E. London, resides his mother and sisters, is of the " Gilnockie" branch of the family.
Among the many estimable members of the race in Ireland must not be omitted Thomas Armstrong, j. p., of Portadown, county of Armagh, a solid business man, whose grandfather used, annually, to make a pilgrimage to the old home of his ancestors upon the Scottish border.
- For much of the information of the clan Armstrong,
the author of this article is indebted to the very valuable work entitled " The History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and the Debateable Country." By Robert Bruce Armstrong. Published, 1883, by David Douglass, Edinburgh, Scotland.
�� �
