Margaret Armstrong
Biography
Family Stories
Margaret Armstrong was born around 1745, a daughter of the renowned Armstrong clan — one of the most powerful and feared Border reiver families on the Scottish side of the Anglo-Scottish border. For centuries, the Armstrongs were notorious for their cattle raids, their fortified tower houses, and their fierce independence from both crowns. Their name is synonymous with the lawless "Debateable Land" that once stretched along the Border.
Margaret married James Telfer of Sorbietrees, a farmstead near Newcastleton in Roxburghshire, deep in Liddesdale — the very heart of Armstrong country. Together they raised a family at Sorbietrees, and their children carried the Armstrong and Telfer names forward into the generations that would eventually scatter across Scotland and beyond.
Little else is known of Margaret Armstrong's life — she appears in the historical record chiefly through the baptisms of her children. She remains a quiet figure in the margins, but her Armstrong lineage ties this branch of the Telfer family to one of the most storied and turbulent clans of the Scottish Borders.
(From the Borders to the Bush, pp.17–18)
Sources
- From the Borders to the Bush, pp.17–18
- Parish records of Liddesdale / Newcastleton, Roxburghshire