Will do, Audrey - just checked my Riddells & only came up with one Walter, born Roberton Rox, but he was christened 31 DEC 1749, so possiby a bit too old?
And thanks Russell re the will information. I've bookmarked the wills for download ASAP
And the story gets more complex - just found today that William Armstrong's widow was listed as 'farmer' in the 1861 census at the family farm, so seemingly inherited it. But the listings I have for 'his' wills are Jedburgh Sheriff Court dated Aug & Dec 1852, the year after he died in early 1851, and the second one is a Testament Dative, which is one "drawn up by the court if a person died intestate ... in order to appoint and confirm the executor on their behalf" in case you didn't know.
I say 'his' wills as I haven't confirmed the name, but they're both listed for 'Farmer at Sorbytrees', and WIlliam Armstrong was known as 'Sorby Trees' as I already explained - I guess it's possible that 2 other farmers local to the village of Sorbietrees died within a year of Armstrong, but his farm would have covered most of the area around Sorbitrees, plus it seems that farmers in that area were known by the name of their farm rather than surname ... worth a tenner to find out!
Plus I'm still short on proof that Sorby Trees was my gg uncle - however, Sorby Tree's wife was born in Newcastleton, there were the 2 marriages/banns read for William Armstrong/Elizabeth Hall at Castleton/Kelso, and 'both' Elisabeths had a father called Thomas (unless the FamilySearch entry for the 'Kelso' William Armstrong iss a mistake). Sorby trees was born 'about 1813 Of Sorbytrees' and my gg uncle at Yetholm 17/7/1813; I can't think of a reason why there was the entry at Kelso unless he had family there, and my gg grandfather had a farm only 2 or 3 miles south of Kelso...
The only fly in that ointment is that I only found out yesterday that Sorbitrees was Williams 'paternal farm'... if he was my gg uncle that would mean that my gg grandfather owned it or gifted it to him, but William snr was listed as 'farmer' in Heiton in the 1841 census... I guess he could have retired, being around 60 when Sorby Trees was shot, but gg grandfather was over 100 years old when he died!
So I still need to see the wills and try & trace birth/marriage certs for Willliam!
So the search goes on...