Scottish clan
Clan Armstrong
Gaelic name Clann Mac Ghillielàidir
A Border clan of Liddesdale, Eskdale and the Debatable Land, with a historic seat at Mangerton and a later stronghold at Gilnockie Tower. The clan no longer has a chief: both sources read give Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton, hanged about 1610, as the last. Its origin is told two ways, from an armour-bearer named Fairbairn or from the Anglo-Danish earl Siward, and the clan association itself says neither is supported by valid references.
No photograph is held for this record.
- Region
- Scottish Borders, Dumfriesshire, Liddesdale
- Historic seat
- Mangerton Tower
- Motto
- Invictus Maneo
- Linked tartans
- 0
- Linked surnames
- 0
- Recorded septs
- 3
- Evidence level
- C
Overview
Clan Armstrong (Gaelic Clann Mac Ghillielàidir, a neologism according to Wikipedia that Gaelic speakers rarely use) belongs to the Scottish Borders, in particular Liddesdale, Eskdale and the Debatable Land. Wikipedia gives the motto Invictus Maneo, 'I remain unvanquished', and a crest of an armed arm. Its historic seat was Mangerton Tower, about a mile south of Newcastleton; Gilnockie Tower, near Canonbie in Dumfriesshire, now houses a Clan Armstrong Centre according to the same article.
The clan has no chief today. The Armstrong Clan Association and Wikipedia both name Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton, hanged about 1610, as the last.
The Armstrong Clan Association says the Armstrongs lived in and around the Debatable Land, in Liddesdale, Eskdale and Annandale, and that the Debatable Land was the parishes of Canonbie and Kirkandrews, about 7,400 acres.
Origins
The association gives two traditions and refuses to endorse either. In one an armour-bearer named Fairbairn saved a king of Scotland by pulling him onto his horse and was renamed Armstrong; in the other the name goes back to Siward, an Anglo-Danish earl. The association says experts hold that Siward's sons died without male heirs and that neither origin is supported by valid reference material. Wikipedia tells the Siward version, with the epithet Beorn or Digry glossed as sword-strong arm, but not the Fairbairn story.
The only dated records read are medieval: the association gives the surname in Ousby, Cumberland, in 1223, and Wikipedia gives Adam Armstrong pardoned in 1235. Wikipedia also offers a Gaelic route, Mac Tréan-Labhraidh, probably 'strong-speaking', misread as 'strong-arm'. The association states a Celtic derivation of its own and mentions a Y-DNA pattern that it reads as suggesting Pictish origins; that is the association's reading and no genetic study was seen.
Development
Wikipedia's dated list runs from an ambassador in 1363 and Otterburn in 1388 to a border-peace pledge in 1398, a tower attacked by Lord Dacre in 1528, followed by the burning of Netherby, and the Armstrongs' absence at Solway Moss in 1542. The association adds the Debatable Land, which it measures at about 7,400 acres across Canonbie and Kirkandrews, and Gilnockie Tower on the Esk.
The best known Armstrong, Johnnie of Gilnockie, appears differently in the two pages. The association says James V invited him to court in 1529, promised safety and then had him hanged with 36 men at Carlenrig, and notes that this rests partly on a ballad. Wikipedia says by tradition the king lured him to Hawick and hanged him, and gives no year. The tower's date is 1518 in one and about 1520 in the other. The reader should treat both the year and the place of the hanging as unsettled.
After 1603 the Borders were pacified. The association says many Armstrongs were executed or sent to Ireland and their lands confiscated, and that parish records show three Armstrongs reaching Barbados before 1650. It also says the Armstrong Chronicles claim Armstrongs died in Virginia about 1623, which it gives only on that book's authority. Wikipedia says families scattered to Ulster, mainly County Fermanagh, and that Sir Thomas Armstrong settled in Ireland in 1639.
Tartans
No Armstrong tartan is held as a record on this site, because no open source with a register entry or threadcount was read. The association's history page has no tartan information. Wikipedia illustrates an Armstrong tartan and repeats a story that Neil Armstrong carried a piece of the clan tartan to the Moon; the story was not checked and no register entry was seen.
Septs
Neither source gives a list of septs. Wikipedia names allied clans (Elliot, Moffat, Crozier and Nixon), which are not septs, and says many Catholic Armstrongs in Ulster adopted the name Traynor after the Plantation. Three spellings of that name are recorded here as uncertain links: Traynor, Treanor and Trainor. The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs says there is no central register of septs and that each chief decides, and this clan has no chief to decide.
Check before repeating
Misconceptions
The Fairbairn and Siward stories are often told as the origin of the name; the clan's own association says neither is supported. The hanging of Johnnie Armstrong is often given a precise year and place; the sources read disagree or are silent. Nothing read shows that everyone named Armstrong descends from the Border clan: the association's own reading of the Y-DNA is a pattern in one cluster, and the name is also recorded in Cumberland and Northumbria.
Who can wear
The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs says there are no strict rules on who may wear a tartan and that wearing a clan tartan signals allegiance to the chief. This clan has no chief to give or withhold that allegiance, and no tartan is recorded on this site.
Not established
What the record does not show
No tartan or threadcount was read. The association's date for the first surname record (1223) and Wikipedia's (1235) are for different persons and no primary record was seen for either. The hanging year, place and the number of men hanged rest on the association's account and a ballad. The Y-DNA claim and the Virginia claim were not checked. The Wikipedia event list was not traced to its printed sources.
Surnames and septs
No Armstrong surname page is published on this site yet; it would need an independently sourced account of the name. The Traynor spellings are Wikipedia's note about Ulster families and are recorded as uncertain.
Historical notes
The Armstrong Clan Association says the Armstrongs lived in and around the Debatable Land, in Liddesdale, Eskdale and Annandale, and that the Debatable Land was the parishes of Canonbie and Kirkandrews, about 7,400 acres. It says the surname was first recorded in Ousby, Cumberland, in 1223. Wikipedia gives an earlier record, Adam Armstrong pardoned in 1235 for causing a man's death, and says the name was common across Northumbria and the Scottish Borders. The two dates are for different records and do not agree on a first appearance.
The association introduces the Fairbairn story as a traditional claim, an armour-bearer who rescued a king of Scotland and was given the name Armstrong, and notes that cynics call the feat a physical impossibility. It names Siward, an Anglo-Danish earl, as another claimed forebear and says experts hold that his sons died without male heirs. It states that neither origin is supported by valid reference material. Wikipedia gives the Siward tradition without that caution and offers a Gaelic derivation, Mac Tréan-Labhraidh, thought to mean strong-speaking, that may have been misunderstood as strong-arm.
The association says Gilnockie Tower was built about 1520 on the River Esk and that in 1529 James V invited Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie to court, promised him safety, broke the promise and had him hanged at Carlenrig with 36 of his men, a story it says is partly based on a ballad. Wikipedia's clan article says the tower was reportedly built in 1518, possibly on an earlier site, and gives no year for the hanging. The two sources differ on the building date and the hanging year is given by one only.
Wikipedia lists dated Armstrong events: Gilbert Armstrong as an ambassador to England in 1363, John Armstrong at Otterburn in 1388, a pledge to keep the border peace by three Armstrongs in 1398, an attack on the Armstrongs' tower by Lord Dacre in 1528 answered by the burning of Netherby, and the Armstrongs' absence from James V's army at Solway Moss in 1542. These are one secondary article's statements and its references were not checked.
Evidence level D. Sources: [2]
Both sources say the last chief was Archibald Armstrong of Mangerton, hanged about 1610. The association says that after the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the Pacification of the Borders many Armstrongs were executed or deported to Ireland and their lands confiscated. Wikipedia says many families settled in Ulster, particularly County Fermanagh, and that no trace of the chiefs has been found since the dispersal. It describes the clan as having no chief and being armigerous.
Septs and associated names
Sept lists differ between clan societies and older sources. Each name below carries the confidence this site can support.
- Traynor
- Treanor
- Trainor
- Uncertain
- Reported, but the sources are weak or disagree.