The Armstrong Clan Society
Dedicated to the Armstrongs, Crosiers, Fairbairns, Grosiers, Nixons and those interested in these surnames.
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 aduts and all minor children. In all other countries dues are $35 per year, payable in US funds.
click here to download a membership application.
Miscellany
The Ghost of
Archie Armstrong
Submitted by John L. Fairbairn, Upper Midwest Regional Representative
Many
centuries ago a Lord of Haughton castle, named Thomas Swinburne, captured
Armstrong and imprisoned him in the dungeon Unfortunately, the Lord
forgot to leave instruction for the provision of food and water for his
prisoner.
Some
days later and while attending a meeting in York, after discovering the
keys to Armstrong's cell in his pocket, Swinburne suddenly remembered his
ill-fated captive. In p
anic
the Lord of Haughton quickly stormed out of the meeting and mounted his
horse to gallop home to Northumberland.
Swinburne
was too late. When he opened the cell there lay Armstrong dead on
the floor, and what a horrifying sight it was. It seemed that in
desperation Armstrong had gnawed the flesh from his own arm.
For
many years the ghost of Armstrong haunted the castle until it was
exorcised by a local vicar, using a black-lettered Bible. The ghost
returned to Haughton for a short time while the Bible was taken to London
for binding, but when the book was returned to Northumberland, Armstrong's
ghost disappeared and was rarely seen again.
On the
opposite bank of the North Tyne from Haughton Castle, is the village of
Barrasford, and a stream called the Swin Burn. This stream gave its
name to the Northumbrian family called the Swinburnes. The Swinburnes
lived at Great Swinburne Castle, which stood nearby. Members of this
family have included Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), the famous
Northumbrian poet.
Not
far to the north of Swinburne Castle is a farmstead with the curious name
of Pity Me. There are two places with this name in Britain; the other is a
village in County Durham. The name of the Northumbrian Pity Me is believed
to derive from a corruption of Celtic words meaning Field of Graves.
Armstrongs in Northern Ireland
By Major (Retired) Thomas Armstrong, Wanganui, New Zealand 5001, The Armstrong Chronicles, April 2006
Having been expelled from the Scottish Border with England in the late 16th early 17th century many Armstrongs settled in County Fermanagh, Ireland, including the writer's forebears and within a couple of generations Armstrongs were to be found throughout Ireland and in turn a great many left Ireland for America and Canada where they quickly established themselves. However, here's the story of an Armstrong family who decided to stay on in Ireland: "The following report appeared in "The Irish News" of 11th February 1897 and was reproduced by that newspaper on 11th February 1988: "Only a short distance from Milltown (County Clare) resides a woman named Mrs. Anne Armstrong, who has attained the age of 116 years, and is still in possession of all her faculties and enjoying good health. She lives in a lodge midway between Milltown and Spanish Port. Her maiden name was Anne Bracken, and she had been born at Florencecourt, County Fermanagh. She states that in the year of the Irish Rebellion (1798) she was 17 years old and that she was married two years later. She would thus appear to have been born in 1781, a year before the period of the Volunteers. With her husband, Thomas Armstrong, who was a peace officer in the troubled times, she came to live in County Clare." The writer, Thomas Armstrong, of New Zealand, whose family originated from County Fermanagh, as a young man was familiar with those places referred to above and his Mother, Elizabeth Armstrong, was born in 1884 and died in 1992 at the ripe old age of 108. She had never been further than about 20 miles from where she was born and, by the way, most Irish Armstrong families had a Thomas.
___________________________Return to the ACS homepage_____________________________________
Revised 17 Jan 2011