James Armstrong b.~1825

[Andrew Tarr]

Mysterious parentage.  I have a copy of an original marriage cert. dated 7 May 1854, Jarrow parish church:  James Armstrong (29), furnaceman of Felling - father Robert A., Gentleman.  This has apparently intrigued the family ever since.  With a name like that he is hard to pin down in early censuses, but he apparently is from Nicholforest on the Scottish border.  I have collected this much:
1841  James is ag.lab.(15) at Penton, 2m.E Canonbie (no Mgt.Armstrong found nearby, may be in Scotland)
1844  Mgt.at Birtley Shield (3m.SE Bellingham).  9 Nov.married William Lamb at Bellingham, spinster, giving her father as James Armstrong, labourer
1851  James unmarried, 'visiting' mother Margaret and stepfather William - but not 'stepson', at Pinchmenear, a farm cottage S of Bellingham, now vanished.

I wonder who Robert might have been - he wasn't that much of a gentleman, or he would have married Margaret ....

[Milliepede]

It's possible he made up the name of a father to put on his marriage, people often did.

After all if his mother was a spinster then the father wouldn't be called Armstrong anyway.

I'm taking it you mean Robert A is A is for Armstrong occupation Gentleman?  Or so you mean Gentleman was his actual surname?

Sorry if got the wrong end 

[groom]

Sorry, I'm a bit confused as well.

Am I right in thinking that James Armstrong's mother is Margaret and that Margaret married William Lamb in 1844 as a spinster? Looks to me as if he was illegitimate and made up a father to look respectable. 

[Andrew Tarr]

Am I right in thinking that James Armstrong's mother is Margaret and that Margaret married William Lamb in 1844 as a spinster? Looks to me as if he was illegitimate and made up a father to look respectable.

Sorry if I condensed things a bit too much - you have drawn the same obvious conclusion, but I doubt that 'Robert' was a complete invention.  As James grew up he would have asked his mother who was his father; she would (probably) have known, and spun a suitable yarn.

I know of another similar example: Alice had a son Fred when she was 23 and registered the birth herself (1873) without declaring the father.  She married 7 years later, but Fred never took his stepfather's name.  When he himself married, he gave all the details of Alice's father instead.

[groom]

That's quite common, giving grandfather's details, after all that would solve the situation of a name being different. Also the child might look upon the grandfather as a father figure, especially if they were brought up in the same house.

I agree, his father may have been called Robert, but wouldn't have been an Armstrong unless that was a coincidence. Probably wasn't a gentleman either, unless Margaret had been a servant and had an affair with her employer or perhaps a son. 

I wouldn't try and find a Robert Armstrong, I doubt if he exsisted under that name. It's a pity it is pre census as it would have been interesting to find Margaret just before his birth, that might have given a clue.

[WolfieSmith]

Can't help with James but a bit more on his mother.

In 1861, Margaret Lamb gives her place of birth as Dumfries.

Burial at Gateshead, 1872, Margaret Waugh Lamb, 68, of 25 Peareth St.  Same place where the Armstrongs (plus Margaret and William Lamb) are living in 1871.

A baptism at Canonbie, Dumfriesshire, 3 Jan 1802, Margaret Waught Armstrong, dau of James Armstrong and Anne Bell.

Other children of James Armstrong and Ann Bell, all at Canonbie.

Mary, born 24 Sep, bap 29 Sep 1793.
William, born 19 June, bap 26 June 1795.
Jean born 26 Mar 1800.
Agness, born 23 Sep, bap 2 Oct 1803.
Walter, born 21 April, bap 23 May 1807.
William, born 10 May, bap 9 June 1809.

Alan.

[Andrew Tarr]

Many thanks Alan - that all looks pretty solid.            Andrew