Page 17 - Armstrong Bloodline - ebook_Neat

A couple of observations about this segment. First, the Irish Orangemen were not founded until 1795, well
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after our ancestors arrived in America . However, we do know that the fledgling Orange Order borrowed
wholesale from Masonic practice and terminology. Orange lodges, masters, grand masters, oaths, signs,
degrees, warrants and brethren all have a clear Masonic lineage and were staunchly Protestant. To
Republicans and Whigs, from John Milton in the 1650s to William Drennan, Volunteer and future United
Irishman, in the 1780s, Catholics were” justly” excluded from the constitution on the grounds that toleration
could not safely be extended to the intolerant, nor liberty to its enemies. Those antipathies were historically
rooted in Whig myths of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and Irish Protestant folk memories of the 1641
rebellion. We also know that several of our early American bloodline ancestors were Freemasons.

As mentioned above, the remainder of H. R. Armstrong’s’ family history has enough similarities to version #1
above to lead one to believe that they were originally written by the same person. Both versions refer to Elliot
as our ancestor and are a bit confusing as to whether it was Elliot or his father who moved to the mainland.
Also uncertain in the second version is the name of Thomas who is assumed to be either a sibling of Elliot’s or
of his father Martin. As we know Elliot has only one older brother named Jewett (who nowhere in our research
is identified as a half brother), it is reasonable to speculate that this is meant to be the name of Martin’s
brother. This remains mere speculation, however, as none of the family researchers I know of have ever found
anything that suggests this is true. As we shall see, other sources have suggested that the names of Martin’s
two brothers were John and Elliot.

Version #2 also states that Thomas went west side and that his descendents are said to have settled in South
Bend, IN. Interestingly, Kaye Powell who assisted me with doing Armstrong surname research on my
Armstrong Genealogy & History web site was contacted by an Armstrong descendent who was trying to trace
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his family who were from South Bend, Indiana. At the time, he had tracked his line back to Cayuga County in
western NY, through south western Michigan, and finally to South Bend where his ancestor David Armstrong
settled in Aug. 1871. If this was the South Bend family being referred to, we know that whoever added to this
narrative must have done so at some time after that date. In fact, this version refers to “great grandfather” as
being buried in Shoreham, VT. No record of Martin’s death in Shoreham has ever been found and other family
researchers believe he moved to Crown Point with his son Jewett around 1815 and possibly died there
between 1815 and 1820. So if “great grandfather” refers to Elliot, then this version must have been prepared
by someone from the generation of Henry Armstrong’s children.

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A third version, hand-written in pencil also exists in my personal collection . This version is identical to version
#2 (with one small exception) and was received from Bill Spencer, another descendant of Spencer Armstrong. I
believe this to be the “little statement which my father wrote out” that is mentioned in Carrie Armstrong
Chermak’s letter to J. B. Armstrong in 1912. I also believe that while the beginning of the statement is clearly a
personal recollection from Henry Armstrong’s early years, the remainder of the write-up is likely something he
copied from some other source or had at least seen sometime in the past.

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I went through the hand-written summary in detail and typed out my own copy to make sure that it was the
same as version #2 and found one small difference. In the typed versions I had seen, each contained the
phrase “Eliot named after his Mother’s clan”. My review showed that the hand-written version actually said
“Eliot named after his Mother’s kin”, which is no big deal, but does bring up one very interesting conclusion –
Elliot’s mother’s last name was “Elliot”. As the Armstrongs and the Elliots go back a long ways – to the Scottish
borderlands – where they were close confederates with the Nixons and Crosers, and among the most
notorious of the reiving clans, this also has some credibility. It is further known that two Clans intermarried
frequently. Several of the Elliot clan also migrated to Fermanaugh, Ireland with the Armstrongs where the two
families continued to be in close contact. We also have evidence that some family members emigrated to

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