52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1 Foundations

I have been very lax over the last year in keeping up to date with my blog so I have decided to be more pro-active this year and have taken up Amy Johnson-Crow’s challenge of trying to write something every week. I have signed up to her ’52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ challenge. Every week she suggests a theme to use to write something relating to your family history and this week’s theme is Foundations.

I initially thought about relating the story of the person who started me on my family history journey, the Rev Robert Cunningham, but that would be a repeat of the post I wrote in September 2020 so instead I have decided to write about my 3 times great grandfather, William Armstrong, as this is as far back as I have got with this particular branch of my family so is the foundation of my research so far.

Here’s what I know so far:- William was born around 1814 in the county of Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. I think he was the son of William Armstrong and Helen Liddle but am still endeavouring to confirm this. I currently have no information about his childhood. The next time he turns up in the story is in the family tree of the afore mentioned Rev Robert Cunningham which I received as part of a research report carried out in the year 1999.

Rev Robert Cunningham was the founder of the school that would become Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh. A well respected educational reformer in Scotland in the mid 19th century, Robert Cunningham was the father of Agnes Cunningham who married Rev William Armstrong in 1869. Rev William Armstrong was the eldest son of William Armstrong. As part of the bicentennial celebrations of the Rev Cunningham’s birth by the college a research report was commissioned to try and identify as many descendants to be invited to the Founders Day celebration. A family tree attached to this report identified Rev William Armstrong and showed his parents to be William Armstrong and Susan Taite. I have not been able to find a marriage record for William and Susan but I have found a record of the births of all their children, including William, in the parish registers for Edrom in Berwickshire.

By the time of the 1841 Census, William and Susan were living in the village of Yetholm in Roxburghshire. William is an Agricultural Labourer and they have three children. William was keen to better himself and by 1851 the family have moved to Coldingham, in Berwickshire and William is now a Farm Steward and he now has 7 children. The Dictionary of Occupational Terms defines a Farm Steward as a manager or head worker on farm or farms, who is mainly engaged in supervision and allocation of duties; superintends work of agricultural labourers, e.g. carters, cowman; is often placed in charge of subsidiary farm under the direct supervision of the employer and manages farm in absence of farmer.

By 1861, William and his family have moved again south of the border to the small hamlet of Bunker Hill in County Durham, where William is now described as a Farm Bailiff, which is defined as the same as a Farm Steward. His eldest son has by now left home and he has nine children still living at home.

In 1871 William and family are now living at Grange Hill in the small village of Coudon Grange, east of Bishop Auckland, in County Durham. He is now described as a Land Agent also known as an Estate Manager responsible for the day to day running of an estate or large farm. His eldest son, William, now listed as Scotch Clergyman, is visiting his parents and there are 4 other children listed.

William died on 4th March 1877 and is described in the probate index as a Farm Manager. He was buried in Auckland St Andrew on 6th March 1877. His gravestone actually states that he was born in 1813 and died in 1876 but the burial register confirms that he was indeed buried in 1877.

William Armstrong is the foundation of my family history research so far, a man who grew up in the countryside of the Scottish Borders and worked hard to better himself and move up from being an Agricultural Labourer to a Land Agent running an estate and providing for his family. Like many in my family he was born a Scot and probably declared himself as a proud Scot all his life but he had to come south of the border in order to make a living.