ARMSTRONGS of Ravensden

[castlebob]

Hello Wendy,
I agree. I sent Sue Edwards a copy of my tree some months ago & asked her views on the Elstow connection. She agreed it was highly likely; especially the Armstrong Busby girl living with Wilstead Armstrong stock in Haynes in 1861c.
I think we both agreed that the central & north Beds familes were probably connected.
With your, David & John's input it seems we're generally singing from the same hymn sheet.
Thanks,
Bob

[wdurham]

Hello All,
Now that the Ravensden link is sorted, you may be interested in the Elstow branchwhich I did some work on last year, as follows:
A Samuel Armstrong born about 1750's wed Sarah. One of their girls Edy/Edith b 1785 c1788 in Elstow wed Samuel Busby on 1st Mar 1806, died Houghton C in 1841
Edith had an illeg son (by 1 month) called Samuel Busby Armstrong 16th Feb 1806 in Elstow. Samuel wed Ann Page of Goldington - a main Armstrong centre, in 1827. They had 10 kids starting with Ann in 1827, but they had dropped the Armstrong surname by then.
On 19th Apr 1827 an Overseers of the Poor in Houghton C asked for Samuel Busby alias Armstrong & wife Ann to be moved to Wilshamstead. Wilshamstead was crossed out & Elstow inserted.
The 1861c for Haynes shows Ann Busby (Armstrong) living as a servant with William & Hannah Armstrong ( Will & Hannah are fromthe Wilstead line) I believe theyt took her in as she was family.
Samuel Busby who wed Edy was probably the son of Beecher Busby & wife Christian (nee Goodman) who wed in 1765 at Bedford St Mary. Samuel was baptised at...Thurleigh! The date was 15th May 1774. Beecher wed again in Oct at Thurl to a Mary Wakeman.
As you see from above, all branches seem cclosely linked.
Anyway, I'll leave it for your perusal,
Cheers,
Bob

Bob- I've been having a look at these Busbys, to see if there are any clues as to the origins of Samuel Armstrong and Sarah.

I think the Thurleigh Busby's are a different family. From the IGI:

A William Busby married Ann Cudd in 1723 in Thurleigh. They appear to have had at least two sons: William b 1725 and Beecher b 1739. There is a burial for a William in 1751 but no age given.

William Jnr married Elizabeth Marcey in 1749 and they had 7 children between 1750 and 1761, which included two attempts at a Henry. There is a burial for a William in Thurleigh in 1791, but no age given.

Beecher married Mary Wakeham in 1774 in Thurleigh and they had at least one son, Samuel b 1774. Beecher died in 1814 aged 76.

Samuel married Elizabeth Darlow in 1799, and they had at least two sons: Beecher b 1800 and John b 1802. There is a burial for a Samuel in Thurleigh in 1803, but no age given.

Beecher Jnr can be found in 1841 in Colmworth with wife Elizabeth and eldest son Samuel aged 15, plus 5 others. John seems to have remained in Thurleigh, though I haven't investigated fully.

None of this helps find out who the Samuel Busby was who married Edith in Elstow in 1806, but at least it seems to show who he WASN'T! The children of Samuel and Edith were all born in Houghton Conquest, and tracking forward shows that several of them stayed there. Samuel and Edith were both buried in HC in 1841 and 1868 respectively.

The fly in the ointment is the nine-week old Edith Armstrong in 1822, born to and buried by Elizabeth Armstrong in Houghton Conquest. I wonder if Samuel Busby and Edith also produced a daughter as well as a son before they got married? I can't see any other source for an Armstrong female in Houghton Conquest at that particular time, particularly one who would name her daughter Edith....she would have been born in Elstow, but moved to HC with Edith and Samuel after the marriage.

[castlebob]

Hello Wendy,
I'll try & have a look at this soon.I've just joined FamilytreeDNA & hope to get results by next month. I'll let you know what they show!
Cheers,
Bob
PS Keep up the good work

[wdurham]

Found - the first documented link between the "posh" Armstrongs of Ampthill and Houghton Conquest and our branch:

http://tinyurl.com/26xcm8

The John Armstrong at the beginning of the references is son and heir of Charles, who was son of Thomas and Frances Thompson. Thomas was allegedly born in Ireland and settled in Ampthill on his retirement from the Army in 1717. He was a JP  - references all over the place on BLARS. His wife Frances was daughter of Lord Haversham and granddaughter of the Earl of Anglesey.

John Armstrong must have been at least 21 to be entering into leases, so born before 1767. This puts him in the right age-group to be a son of Charles - but I cannot find a John born to Charles. Charles' children with Althamia Priaulx were born between 1749-1752 in Steppingly. The Ancestry trees say he had a first wife named Elizabeth, with whom he had one son, Thomas, but I can't find him either!

The key item is right at the end - John Armstrong's will. However, this can't be the John mentioned in the first line - he must be the next generation. He is definitely from that family - the Althamiah pegs him firmly to the "posh" lot:

"Recites (9) - will of John Armstrong 7 June 1841
- To daughters Mary Ann Armstrong and Althamiah Armstrong 400 each on attaining 21 years, and if one should die her share to go to the other, if both should die the legacies should lapse for the benefit of the owner of the estates,
- To friends Charles Armstrong, farmer, of Wootton and William Armstrong, farmer, of Hawnes, his personal estate and messuages, tenements and lands, on trust to provide from them 52 a year to wife Mary Armstrong, with power of sale.
Executors: Charles, William and Mary Armstrong as above, will pro 19 June 1843 at Bedford."

I have found his death on FreeBMD, qe Jun 1843, and two daughters on the IGI baptised in 1827 and 1830 respectively. There seems likely to have been a son John in 1832 and a Sarah Augusta in 1835 as well. Though with everything left in trust for his wife and daughters, there couldn't have been a son surviving by 1841, but I can't find a likely burial. Sarah Augusta died qe Sept 1838.

It's interesting because it is the first visible contact between the Ampthill family and ours.

[castlebob]

Hello Wendy,
Good work.
I was in contact with a convenor for the Irish Armstrongs about 6 years ago who had masses of info on the "Clan" there. The Stonestown Armstrongs link directly to the Mangerton stronghold, see Burke's Landed Irish Gentry. Something I did try to work on that was another coincidence was that Charles Armstrong wed Althamia Priaulx of Bedford in 1747. In Ireland, Co Offaly (formerly King's Co), there are several Armstrong/Priaulx links. EG John Armstrong Priaulx is mentioned several times in the mid-1800's in Cary House, Kings Co. The rarity of the Priaulx surname seemed to me to be quite a noticeable coincidence.
I did lots of research into the famous Andrew Armstrong (1576-1671), as some old notes claimed to link us with this branch. However, every Armstrong you meet seems to try to make this link! I did holiday in the Canonbie/Newcastleton region in the 1980 to try & confirm a link, but with no success.
Two areas I thought may prove interesting: The Beds Regt were occasionally in Ireland, plus many Lowland Scots came south in the Covenanter's Army.
Anyway, all these extra links like yours start to build up into a quite formidable case. The downside would seem to be that the Riseley A's were labourers, & Stonestown, Gallen & Mangerton were of landed stock. Mind you, George Armstrong (the wealthy farmer) lived amongst his more humble cousins in Goldington, so it does happen.
Anyway, I'll dig out some more old papers.
Thanks,
Bob

[quest40]

Hello everyone,

Well there's certainly some interesting info in this thread!  My husband is connected to Thomas Armstrong and Phoebe Wisson, through their son Thomas born c.1796 married to Mary, then via their son Isaac born 1817 at Upprer Gravenhurst.  My husband's grandmother was Lizzie Armstrong, daughter of Isaac and his second wife Martha Anderson.  I suspect I have already been in contact with castlebob through the Bedfordshire family history society.

Despite wading through all the posts, I can't quite work out who else is actually connected to this family!

Ann

[castlebob]

Hello Ann,
Yes, guilty as charged! We still haven't been able to connect your line, although we feel somewhere between William b1752 c1754 in Wilstead & his brother John b1761, there is a likely space for the Upper G & Elstow Armstrongs. All logic plus naming patterns & coincidental evidence points to this, but we can't prove it satisfactorily.
Cheers
Bob

[bedfordshire boy]

To help narrow it down, I'm NOT connected!

David

[wdurham]

Hi, Ann - welcome to the Armstrong-fest!

There are plenty of them about, all over Bedfordshire.

However, thus far, as Bob has said, we have not been able to prove any link at all between the Armstrongs that are mainly discussed on this thread and Thomas and Phoebe and their family of Upper Gravenhurst.

Very many researchers have picked up on an incorrect reference on the IGI and various other family trees on the net - i.e. that William Armstrong who fathered a family in Thurleigh from his second marriage to Ann Gammons - to whom most of us here ARE related in one way or another - was the son of Thomas and Phoebe.

Sadly he wasn't. That William almost certainly died as a teenager, and the real William Armstrong of Thurleigh was probably an unbaptised son of John and Sarah of Ravensden.

It's good to come across a descendant of Thomas and Phoebe - have you managed to unearth any information prior to their marriage?

A number of Armstrongs seem to have arrived in various Bedfordshire villages at about the same time int he late 1780s - and I suspect that they MAY be related, if only because they all named a daughter (usually their eldest) Edith. This COULD suggest that they were all children of John Armstrong and Edith Grange, who ended up living (and both died) in Maulden and were probably "on the parish". There are only two recorded children of theirs - William and John. as mentioned by Bob just now. But baptisms cost money - it's possible that there were more children.

It just seems so much of a coincidence that Samuel in Elstow, Thomas in Upper Gravenhurst and John in Ravensden, all had daughters named Edith.....