Armstrong
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By Joseph Massy in Ireland's Own
The name Armstrong, which is found throughout Ulster and in many other parts of Ireland, is of Scottish origin although in more recent years the name has become more famous through the exploits of American bearers. The late Louis Armstrong was one of the world's leading jazz musicians, and on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, as Commander of Apollo 11, became the first man to set foot on the moon.
The family was originally settled on the Scottish border with England, and John, Laird of Giltsknock Hall in Eskedale, was executed in 1530 after a career of leading the warring clans in invasions of Northern England
Andrew Armstrong who a descendent of this Laird, came to Ireland in the next century, settling in Co. Fermanagh. He served as a cavalry officer in Charles I's army after the 1641 rebellion, and many distinguished branches of the Armstrong family in Ireland derive their descent from him.
Like his father, Edmund Armstrong also fought for the Royalist cause in the mid 17th century and he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Worcester in 1657.
Colonel Andrew Armstrong, Edmund's son, served in many battles with the Duke of Marlborough
A brother of Armstrong, Charles Armstrong, purchased an estate in Co. Kildare and built a new residence, which he called Mount Armstrong. This along with other family estates, such as Kilcolgan Castle, and Gallen Priory, passed eventually to Edmund Armstrong who was a magistrate and sheriff for Co. Kildare and Co. Offaly.
Gallen Priory, is a Gothicised Georgian house, and is said to stand on the site of a 5th century monastery. It later became an Augustinian priory, but no remains of this ancient ecclesiastical foundation can be seen today. Kilcolgan Castle, which is also in Co. Offaly, came into the hands of the Armstrong family at the end of the 17th century, when one of its members married a daughter of Francis Coghlan
Andrew Armstrong, who was born at Kilcolgan Castle in 1730, was Sheriff of King's County in 1751. His wife's grandfather, Sir Roger Burgoyne, is said to have been Sir Roger de Coverly of The Spectator.
Andrew's estates passed to his eldest son, Edmund Armstrong, a barrister-at-law, who was a brother-in- law of Lord Ashtown and father to Sir Andrew Armstrong, and other distinguished sons, including Sir Frederick Armstrong, who served with the Duke of Wellington in the Penninsular War and was knighted by both the British and Portuguese monarchs and Very Rev. John Armstrong, dean of Kilfenora and Rector of various Co. Galway parishes.
Sir Andrew Armstrong was given the title of baronet at the age of 54 by Queen Victoria in 1841. It was later inherited by his son, Rev. Sir Edmund Frederick Armstrong who was Rector of Skeirke, Co. Laois, and the title is now held by Sir Andrew St. Clare Armstrong, 5th Bt. who succeeded his father in 1953.
The heir presumptive of the title is Sir Andrew's cousin, Andrew Clarence Francis Armstrong, a former Nigerian civil servant who now lives in Buckinghamshire. His father, the late E.R.C. Armstrong, was Keeper of Irish Antiquities and Bluemantle Pusuivant at the Herald's College in London.
Another Armstrong of Irish descent to receive the title of Baronet during the last century was Sir George Carlyon Hughes Armstrong, editor and proprietor of The Globe, who founded The People in 1881. However this title is now extinct.
William George Armstrong, inventor of the 'Armstrong guns' was given the title of Lord in 1887, and also received an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin. The present Lord Armstrong is John Montagu-Armstrong.
Sir Alexander Armstrong took part in the discovery of the North - West Passage in 1855. A native of Co. Fermanagh, he was knighted in 1871.
The Armstrong family has produced many prominent churchments. Right Rev. John Ward Armstrong, Bishop of Cashel and Emly, Waterford and Lismore, since 1968, is a former Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was once a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin.
Rev. Canon Claude Blakely Armstrong, a former member of the Chapter of Worcester Cathedral, is also a former President of the Irish Schoolmasters Association. Canon Armstrong was headmaster of Cork Grammar from 1914 to 1919 and was Warden of St. Columba's College, Rathfarmham, Dublin from1920 to 1933.
The coat of arms illustrated here is that of Sir Andrew Armstrong and his successors.
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