Don't apologise, Bob - it's all grist to the Armstrong mill!
Since I got your PM earlier today, I have been trying to put the links we have surmised into a single succinct document, but it's difficult to keep it short! David and John, with their access to the various parish records and the BVRI have been of enormous help in figuring out how everyone ties up
I have explored the link to the "posh" Armstrongs of Houghton Conquest/Ampthill area too, and haven't found one - yet. I also had a quick look at the Elstow branch, simply because of the name Edith, but they seem to spring fully-grown onto the IGI in 1788 and are untraceable before that. I can't tie in to the Upper Gravenhurst clan either. But here's what we have found so far, with big apologies for the sheer length of it!
John b about 1670 and Sarah b about 1670 - both somewhere other than Riseley - married before 1700, probably not in Riseley, and settled in Riseley.
They had 8 children, all baptised in Riseley, between 1700 and 1716, most of whom died very young. The only son who survived into adulthood was William b 1701.
John and Sarah were both buried in Riseley in 1727 and 1746 respectively.
There is no burial for William b 1701 in Riseley - so he clearly moved on. The only suitable burial entry in the NBI for him is in Wilstead on 5 Sep 1765.
A William Armstrong and his wife Sarah had two children. John baptised in 1729 in Riseley and Thomas baptised in 1734 in Wilstead. There is a marriage of a William Armstrong and Sarah Prudden, Puddington, 24 Aug 1729 - but it's a bit suspect as it's AFTER the birth of John. Not impossible though!
William and Sarah were both buried in Wilstead in 1765 and 1752.
Their second son Thomas remained in Wilstead and married Christian Fiddes in 1766. He and Christian were buried in Wilstead in 1818 and 1794 respectively. They had two sons, Thomas b 1766, who went on to become a comfortably off farmer in Holwell (I have his will), and William b 1769 who founded Wesleyanism in Wilstead and raised a large family. One of his sons moved to Haynes.
For their first son, John, there is only one suitable burial in the NBI - that of John Armstrong, labourer, in Maulden in 1773. Also in Maulden, there is the burial of Eddy Armstrong, wife of John,labourer, who was buried in 1770.
A John Armstrong married Edy Grange in Houghton Conquest in 1753. A John Armstrong and his wife Edith had two sons in Wilstead - William b 1754 and John b 1761. There are no burials for any of them in Wilstead.
In the Maulden Overseers of the Poor book, there is an entry as follows:
OVERSEERS of the Poor, Apprenticeship
FILE - Bond (£20) Wm Batterson of Cople - Cordwainer, to Maulden Church Wardens re apprenticeship of Wm Armstrong. - ref. P31/14/53 - date: 12 Mar 1766.
So William b 1754 went off to Cople to pursue his new trade. In 1779 he married Mary Robins, and you know the rest.....
As for what happened to John, nothing has yet been found. But there is again only one possible burial for a John Armstrong b 1760-1761 and that is John Armstrong, buried at the age of 66 in Ravensden in 1826. His wife was Sarah, who died in 1813 aged 47. John does not appear on the marriage records or the baptism records of Ravensden, so they came from elsewhere. They seem to have been the only Ravensden Armstrong family.
In 1803 there was only one John Armstrong on the Ravensden Local Defence register. In the same year there was no Armstrong on the list of owners of carts or horses, so he was not a man of means.
He and Sarah had 8 children in Ravensden between 1787 and 1807, baptised in batches at irregular intervals. One daughter was baptised Edith - perhaps for his mother?
It also seems 99% certain that there was a ninth child, William b about 1792. This William is usually identified by his descendants as the son of Thomas Armstrong and Phoebe Wisson of Upper Gravenhurst.
However, in Census returns he gave his birthplace as Ravensden. His marriage record and his banns for his first marriage in Wilden state "bachelor of Ravensden". He and his first wife Elizabeth Franklin had five children in Wilden, of whom three died. The first daughter was named Sarah and the second Elizabeth. The first son was named William and the second John. After Elizabeth's death in 1825 he moved to Thurleigh and married Ann Wrench, nee Gammons, with whom he had three more children, of whom the eldest was named Sarah. His son William also settled in Thurleigh and raised a family. Both are present in the 1841 census, and they are the only Armstrong family in the village.
So there are all the links we have made between Riseley, Wilstead, Maulden, Ravensden, Wilden and Thurleigh.
Hope it makes sense!
