The Armstrong Clan Society
Dedicated to the Armstrongs, Crosiers, Fairbairns, Grosiers, Nixons and those interested in these surnames. Armstrong Clan Society - One Hundred Thousand Welcomes!
The Armstrong Clan Society has been organized to:
1) Seek friendship and unity among Armstrongs and associated families.
2) Provide for the preservation of Armstrong artifacts unique to the family and to maintain a library.
3) Serve as a genealogical and historical recorder of the membership,
4) Provide quarterly news, Armstrong history and genealogy via The Armstrong Chronicles,
5) Establish geographic membership representation.
Membership
All Armstrongs, Croziers, Fairbairns, Groziers and Nixons, regardless of spelling, and their descendants, are eligible for full membership in The Society. All others interested in furthering the goals of The Society may become associate members. In the United States and Canada, dues are $25 per year, including two adults and all minor children. In all other countries dues are $35 per year, payable in US funds.
You can click here to download a membership application in PDF format and view more membership information. Any questions? Email Peter Armstrong at parmstrong2@sc.rr.com or mail to Peter A. Armstrong 128 Essex Dr Summerville, SC 29485
Lord Lyon, King of Arms, Recognizes an Honorable Company
On September 24, 1984 the Lord Lyon, King of Arms granted warrant to the Lyon clerk to matriculate in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland in the name of Armstrong Clan Society, Inc. "acting world-wide and in particular within the United States of America" to further the interests of the Armstrong family. Matriculated in the 8th day of February 1985 in the 110th page of the 62nd volume of the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland.
The
Hanging of Johnnie Armstrong
By Dave
Armstrong from The Highlander Magazine, April, 2006 (Some spelling converted to USA
standard)
For subscription information call 1.800.607.4410
It is too easy to romanticize the history of the Border reivers
who terrorized the frontier between Scotland and England. For some 300
years, they carried out raids and robberies with thuggish efficiency,
armed with cold steel and the tools of arson. Yet fire and steel defined
not only the basic elements of the reivers' fighting life, but also their
spirit. Proud and passionate, the riding families accepted the conditions
of a tough existence with steel like courage and a fiery determination
to win at all costs.
The Armstrongs were one of the most famous families of reivers.
By the 16th century, the clan was at the zenith of its power. Led by such
worthies as “Sim the Laird, III ", Will Armstrong and John
Armstrong of Gilnockie they could put 3,000 men in the saddle, and they
defied the Scottish king and the English authorities alike. Their base of
operations was the treacherous boggy wasteland of Liddesdale, now part
of modern Dumfriesshire.
Armstrong of Gilnockie maintained his own wild band of
retainers and controlled a tower on the River Esk. To his followers, he
was Black Jock. To the poets who composed the border ballads, he was the
romantic outlaw Johnnie Armstrong.
Armstrong was a reiver first and foremost, an Armstrong second,
and a Scot in lowly third. He levied blackmail from the long-suffering
residents of towns and villages throughout the English Marches and was
not averse to raising a few pounds from vulnerable citizens on the
Scottish side of the border, either. His private army gained a formidable
and fearsome reputation for they did not hesitate to burn people alive in
their own homes if they didn't come up the required protection money.
At this time, Robert, the 5th Lord Maxwell, was Scottish West
March Warden. The six Marches consisted of three on the Scottish side of
the border and three on the English. The Marches were established by the
Scottish and English rulers to supervise the unruly border provinces.
Each March was run by a warden appointed by royal command, and both
countries agreed to deny refuge to outlaws and rebels from the other side
of the border. Unfortunately, the system worked better on paper than in
practice.
Maxwell, one of Scotland's great feudal barons, was embroiled in
an on-going feud with the Johnstone Clan. Having engaged the Armstrongs as
extra troops in that dispute, he now owed them protection. Although
responsible for keeping the reivers under control, he turned a blind eye
when, in alliance with their old pals, the Nixon, Elliot and Crosier
Clans, the Armstrongs went looting and raping across the frontier.
Effectively, the Armstrongs of Liddesdale operated outside the law.
In 1528, William, Lord Dacre, became the new Warden of the English
West March and decided to make a name for himself by taking on the
Armstrongs. In secret, he raised a force of 2000 riders. His plan
was to take Johnnie Armstrong, Sim the Laird, and their followers by
surprise. But the Armstrongs received a tip off from English friends and
had time to prepare. Dacre's force were badly mauled in the encounter
and driven off.
Dacre proved to be a
determined warrior, however, and soon returned, this time, armed with
artillery. He managed to blow Armstrong's tower on the River Esk to
pieces. While Lord Dacre was venting his wrath on the Armstrongs in
Scotland, the Armstrongs were plundering the English town of Netherby,
raiding a mill that belonged to Lord Dacre.
Enraged by this behavior, the English warden declared all-out war
against the Armstrongs and tried several times to invade their territory.
He had more luck when he banned the family from socializing in Carlisle,
for the reivers only burned and looted by night. By day, they liked to
come into Carlisle to purchase goods from the local markets and drink with
their cronies at the inns.
The ban seriously upset the Armstrongs, and relations between
Lord Dacre and Liddesdale worsened. The struggle went on throughout 1528.
Raid after raid was launched from the Scottish side, only to be avenged by
a counter-attack on Liddesdale or the Debatable Land.
This state of affairs continued to degrade until young King James
V of Scotland, escaped the control of the Douglas faction at the royal
court. At the age of 17, King James decided to deal with the Armstrongs
once and for all, promising to "proceed to the sharpe and rygorouse
punyssching of all transgressione upon the bordouris."
When words failed and the Liddesdale robbers went on the
rampage again, the king switched to the iron fist. He summoned to
Edinburgh all the Border lords responsible for maintaining law and order
and promptly threw the lot of them into prison. The earls of Hume,
Maxwell, Johnstone, Bucc1euch and Bothwell all spent time in the king’s
dungeons to teach them a lesson.
The king's royal discipline sent a shock wave through the
Borderlands because decisive action of this kind was unheard of. But James
wanted to prove he meant business. To reinforce the message, he raised
an army of 10,000 men and swooped down upon Liddesdale and the Armstrongs.
At this point, history and legend become blurred, probably
because of the numerous ballads that describe the encounter between King
James V and the outlaw Johnnie Armstrong.
The king's massive army was too powerful, even for the bold fellows
of Liddesdale. Having sized up the situation, Armstrong and his
followers traveled to Carlenrig, near Teviothead, to pay homage to the
king and submit to his authority. It seems that they expected safe conduct
and the king's pardon because they entered James' camp unarmed.
Unfortunately, Armstrong and his men were a cocky, arrogant band
of brothers. Dressed in their best finery, they appeared to be flaunting
the wealth obtained by their dubious activities.
The king went ballistic when he met Johnnie Armstrong face to
face and is reputed to have cried out: "What wants this knave that a
King suld have, but the sword of honour and the crown!"
Later apologists insist that the Armstrongs only chose to look
their best in order to honor the King. No matter. James V was outraged by
the blatant. display of wealth and ordered
his troops to surround the Armstrongs. Realizing that his life was in
danger, Armstrong made a series of offers to his monarch. Among them was a
promise that he would bring the King the head of any Englishman, of any
rank from a duke downward, dead or alive, at any appointed time, day or
night.
But King James V had made up his mind. He wanted to be rid of the
Armstrongs. The family was to be a scapegoat for the entire Borderlands,
their fate a stern warning to the chieftains that the nation-state now
ruled in Scotland.
At this point, the story becomes almost pure
legend. Before being hanged from the nearest tree, Armstrong is reported
to have announced proudly, "I am but a fool to seek grace at a graceless
face. But had I known, sir, that you would have taken my life this day, I
should have lived on the Borders in spite of King Harry [the English
monarch] and you both, for I know King Harry would down weigh my best
horse with gold to know that I were condemned to die this day." The
tree is reputed to have shriveled and died a short time thereafter because
of the great injustice he had suffered.
His hanging was the beginning of the reivers' long goodnight. But
little pity should be spared for Johnnie Armstrong. Colorful and
charismatic as he may have been, he and his men at arms were
blackmailers, murderers and thieves. It took an equally ruthless Stewart
monarch to break the power of the Border reivers and pave the way for the
union of Scotland and England in the next century.
(Editor) King James V’s son,
King James VI of Scotland, was to become King James I of the United
Kingdoms of Scotland and England (The United Kingdom / Great Britain) and
authorized the version of the Holy Bible that carries his name till this
day.
Left: A stone in the graveyard opposite Carlenrig Church marks the traditional spot where Johnnie Armstrong and his men were hung.
Right: A pillar marks the site of Gilnockie
Castle, built by Johnnie Armstrong.
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