| Clan Armstrong | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clann Mac Ghillielàidir [1] | |||
 | |||
| Motto | Invictus maneo (I remain unvanquished) [1] | ||
| Profile | |||
| Region | Scottish Borders | ||
| District | Liddesdale [1] | ||
 | |||
| Clan Armstrong no longer has a chief, and is an armigerous clan | |||
| Historic seat | Mangerton | ||
| Last Chief | Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton | ||
| Died | 1610 | ||
| |||
Clan Armstrong is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Borders. [2]
According to the legend and tradition, the first of the name Armstrong was Siward Beorn (sword warrior), who was also known as Siward Digry (sword strong arm). [2] He was said to be the last Anglo-Danish Earl of Northumberland and a nephew of King Canute, the Danish king of England who reigned until 1035. [2]
The Armstrong name was common over the whole of Northumbria and the Scottish Borders. [2] The Armstrongs became a powerful and warlike clan in Liddesdale and the Debatable Lands. [2] Historian George Fraser Black lists Adam Armstrong in 1235 as being pardoned for causing the death of another man. [2] By tradition, the Armstrongs followed the cause of Robert the Bruce in the Scottish Wars of Independence, and their recorded relationship with the crown was certainly more straightforwardly loyal in the fourteenth century than in later periods. Alexander Armstrong, second laird of Mangerton was imprisoned and killed by the anti-Bruce conspirator William de Soulis at Hermitage Castle. [3] Gilbert Armstrong, served as steward of the household of David II of Scotland, Master of the Horse to the king, and ambassador to England in 1363. [2] Sir Adam Armstrong was listed in 1374 as one of the knights permitted to travel outside Scotland with the Earl of March and Dunbar, then the principal defender of the Scottish border. [4] Fourteen years later, John Armstrong fought in the army of James, second Earl Douglas at the Battle of Otterburn. In 1398, Alexander, David and Geoffrey Armstrong committed their signatures as 'borowis' for the third Earl of Douglas in pledging to keep the peace on the border. [5]
In around 1425 John Armstrong, brother of Armstrong of Mangerton in Liddesdale built a strong tower. [2] The Armstrongs were able to raise three thousand horsemen and were said to be at one point in control of the debatable lands. [2] In 1528, Lord Dacre, who was the English Warden of the Marches, attacked the Armstrongs' tower but the Armstrongs retaliated and burned Netherby. [2] The power of the Armstrongs was seen by James V of Scotland as a threat to his own authority. [2] According to tradition, James tricked John Armstrong of Gilnockie to a meeting at Hawick where the king hanged the Armstrong laird without further ado. [2] King James continued his treatment of the Armstrongs when they failed to support him in 1542 at the Battle of Solway Moss. [2]
In 1603 the Union of the Crowns brought an official end to the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the Borders. [2] In 1610 the last of the Armstrong lairds was hanged in Edinburgh for leading a raid on Penrith, England. [2] This was followed by a ruthless campaign by the Crown to pacify the Borders. [2] As a result, families were scattered with many of them seeking new homes in Ulster, particularly in County Fermanagh. [2] Armstrong is now amongst the fifty most common names in Ulster. [2] There has been no trace of the Armstrong chiefs since the clan was dispersed in the 17th century. [2] Curiously, despite their tense relationship with the Stewart crown, a number of Armstrongs are recorded as officers in the royalist armies serving Charles I in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. "Robert Armstrong, Gent, one of His Maties Servants," was buried at St. Olave, York," among a number of royalist casualties. [6] The professional soldier Sir Thomas Armstrong settled in Ireland in 1639, was elected to the Dublin parliament and fought for the crown in the armies of the Earl of Ormonde and the Earl of Inchiquin. He and his sons Thomas and William engaged actively in royalist conspiracies against the Cromwellian Protectorate through the following decade. [7] William ("Christie's Will") Armstrong, perhaps the last of the clan's famous border freebooters, also fought for the crown as a servant of the earl of Traquair. [8]
Amongst the many distinguished Armstrongs are Sir Alexander Armstrong who was an Arctic explorer, and Neil Armstrong who was the first man to walk upon the Moon, [2] taking with him a piece of the Clan Armstrong tartan. [9] [10] The Armstrong Baronets are descendants of Gilnockie. [11] Comedian Alexander Armstrong is a descendant. [12] Edwin Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, is also a descendant. Although there has been no trace of the Armstrong chiefs since the clan was dispersed in the 17th century, there is a powerful and active clan association and the Clan Armstrong Trust was established in 1978. [2]
Castles owned by the Clan Armstrong have included amongst many others:
It is unknown if any of the early Armstrongs spoke Gaelic, but Gaelic-derived place names such as Auchenrivock can be found in the Esk River valley, and the language persisted in Galloway, Carrick and the Western Borders well into the seventeenth century, so it is possible. [14] The name of the Armstrong stronghold itself, Gilnockie, is from the Scottish Gaelic Geal Cnocan meaning 'Little White Hill'. [15] [16]
The Armstrong name is sometimes rendered in Gaelic as follows:
These Gaelic names appear frequently in modern clan literature, but they are neologistic and are rarely used by Gaelic speakers. However, Armstrong has been historically associated with the Ulster Gaelic name, Mac Tréan-Labhraidh, a branch of the Ó Labhradha family. Tréan-Labhradh means strong-speaking but it is thought that the name was misunderstood as meaning strong-arm, and Armstrong was adopted as a convenient Anglicization. [17] Mac Tréan-Labhraidh would translate as Mac Treun-Labhraidh in Scottish Gaelic. Other common associated names include variations on Traynor, Treanor, Trainor, McCreanor, MacCrainor; which all derive from the Irish Gaelic name, Mac Threinfhir, meaning son of the strong man. After the Plantation of Ulster many Armstrongs (mainly those who were Catholic) adopted the Traynor surname.
Among the best-known Gaelic-speaking Armstrongs was Dr Robert Armstrong of Perthshire, who compiled an authoritative early Gaelic-English dictionary, published in 1825. [18]
Langholm, also known colloquially as the "Muckle Toon", is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland. Langholm lies between four hills in the valley of the River Esk in the Southern Uplands.
Border reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scottish and English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality. They operated in a culture of legalised raiding and feuding. Their heyday was in the last hundred years of their existence, during the time of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of Scotland and the House of Tudor in the Kingdom of England.
Clan Fergusson is a Scottish clan. Known as the Sons of Fergus they have spread across Scotland from as far as Ross-shire in the north to Dumfriesshire in the south.
Hermitage Castle is a semi-ruined castle in the border region of Scotland. It stands in the remote valley of the Hermitage Water, part of Liddesdale in Roxburghshire. It is under the care of Historic Scotland. The castle has a reputation, both from its history and its appearance, as one of the most sinister and atmospheric castles in Scotland.
Clan Scott is a Scottish clan and is recognised as such by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Historically the clan was based in the Scottish Borders.
William Armstrong of Kinmont or Kinmont Willie was a Scottish border reiver and outlaw active in the Anglo-Scottish Border country in the last decades of the 16th century.
Walter Scott, 5th of Buccleuch, 1st Lord Scott of Buccleuch was a Scottish nobleman and famous border reiver, known as the "Bold Buccleuch" and leader of Kinmont Willie's Raid.
Liddesdale is a district in the County of Roxburgh, southern Scotland. It includes the area of the valley of the Liddel Water that extends in a south-westerly direction from the vicinity of Peel Fell to the River Esk, a distance of 21 miles (34 km).
Caerlanrig - also spelled 'Carlenrig' - is a hamlet in the parish of Cavers, Borders, Scotland, lying on the River Teviot, 6 miles (10 km) north east of that river's source, and 10 miles (16 km) south west of Hawick.
The Debatable Lands, also known as debatable ground, batable ground or threip lands, lay between Scotland and England. It was formerly in question as to which it belonged to when they were distinct kingdoms. For most of its existence, the area was a lawless zone controlled by clans of "border reivers" which terrorized the surrounding areas. It became the last part of Britain to be brought under state control in the middle of the 16th century by James V of Scotland, and was eventually divided between Scotland and England.
The Clan Henderson also known as House of Henderson is a Scottish clan. The clan's historical seat is at Fordell Castle in Dalgety Bay, Fife. The current clan chief is Alistair Henderson of Fordell.
Gilnockie Tower is a 17th-century tower house, located at the hamlet of Hollows, 2.2 km north of Canonbie, in Dumfriesshire, south-west Scotland. The tower is situated on the west bank of the River Esk. It was originally known as Hollows Tower.
Clan Johnstone is a Border Reiver Scottish clan.
Clan MacDowall or MacDouall is a Lowlands Scottish clan.
Clan Irvine is a Scottish clan.
Clan Eliott is a Border Reiver Scottish clan.
Canonbie is a small village in Dumfriesshire within the local authority area of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, 6 miles south of Langholm and 2 miles north of the Anglo-Scottish border. It is on the A7 road from Carlisle to Edinburgh, and the River Esk flows through it. There are frequent references in older documents to it as Canobie.
The Anglo-Scottish border is an internal border of the United Kingdom separating Scotland and England which runs for 96 miles (154 km) between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west.
Clan Little is a Scottish clan of the Borders. The clan does not currently have a chief and is therefore considered an armigerous clan. The Clan Little Society had a Guardian in place of a clan chief but, since his death in 2007, no suitable successor has appeared.
Mangerton Tower is a ruined Scottish tower castle house formerly belonging to the Armstrong family.
