The following article was first published in issue 80 of the Armstrong News. It is the first in a series, the second of which was published in issue 81 of the Armstrong News.
It is reproduced here, for the benefit of non-members who may be considering joining the Association or taking a Y-DNA test. The second article in the series is also available to non-members by clicking here.
It is reproduced here, for the benefit of non-members who may be considering joining the Association or taking a Y-DNA test. The second article in the series is also available to non-members by clicking here.
THE ARMSTRONGS: PICTISH WARRIORS
By Bob Armstrong
I’ve spent many years searching for the Armstrongs’ tribal origins, with Anglo-Danish, Norman, Breton, Brythonic Celt, Pictish and Flemish links being closely scrutinised. The 13th century records I studied showed the earliest Armstrongs working closely with men of probable Flemish descent. However, I wasn’t able to say with absolute certainty that the Armstrong ‘progenitor’ came from Flanders. Science, in the form of Y-DNA evidence, would inevitably be required to help uncover the truth.
To that end, I’ve spent much of the last decade helping run FTDNA’s Armstrong Surname group which collects and analyses Y-DNA samples. Some years ago, in a bid to make sense of this complex subject, I contacted Dr Jim Wilson, the world’s leading expert concerning British DNA. Jim, founder of ‘BritainsDNA’, was extremely helpful and offered guidance when able. In April 2013, Jim e-mailed me to say that he had discovered a new single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) which was found in the main Armstrong descent cluster. The SNP in question was S389, which the Armstrong mainstream tested positive for. Jim’s initial assessment for that mutation was that it occurred in under 1% of the British population.
To that end, I’ve spent much of the last decade helping run FTDNA’s Armstrong Surname group which collects and analyses Y-DNA samples. Some years ago, in a bid to make sense of this complex subject, I contacted Dr Jim Wilson, the world’s leading expert concerning British DNA. Jim, founder of ‘BritainsDNA’, was extremely helpful and offered guidance when able. In April 2013, Jim e-mailed me to say that he had discovered a new single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) which was found in the main Armstrong descent cluster. The SNP in question was S389, which the Armstrong mainstream tested positive for. Jim’s initial assessment for that mutation was that it occurred in under 1% of the British population.
A genealogical Y-DNA test examines part of an individual male’s genetic information at specific locations on the Y-chromosome. An SNP is a variation at a point in the DNA sequence and can be used to construct a ‘genetic family tree’. SNPs can suggest links between individuals, so can be extremely helpful in distinguishing both relatively recent family lines, along with deeper, more ancient links. SNPs are identified by a letter and number combination, hence S389. The notation 'S389+' is used when a Y-chromosome has tested positive for the S389 SNP.
Just before Christmas 2014, I contacted Jim asking if he had any further information regarding S389+ testees. I explained the Armstrongs’ close links to men of Flemish stock and mentioned the fact that another Scottish border surname with potential Flemish roots also seemed likely to be S389+. I asked if he knew of any Y-DNA evidence to confirm a Flanders link. In the early hours of Christmas Eve I received an e-mail from Jim in which he explained that: ‘As a Christmas present I have spent some time trawling through my data’. He followed by stating: ‘I didn’t expect it to be so exciting!’
Jim explained that he’d found S389+ in some thirty-three people, seven of whom were Armstrongs. He pointed out that: ‘It is very Scottish, focused on central and north-east Scotland’. He stated that S389+ was found in approximately 0.5% of British men, but topped 1% in N. E. Scotland. It was much lower in England south of Cumberland, and lower still in Wales and Eire. Jim highlighted the fact that the frequency distribution is ‘a classic signature of a Pictish type’. He suggested I encourage a variety of surnames from the S389+ group to take deep Y-DNA tests in order to enable a more accurate assessment of when we all shared a common ancestor. Jim believes that our Armstrong mainstream’s ancestors weren’t Flemings, but likely to be Picts, or an even older tribe!
Jim’s Pictish revelation sent me scurrying to re-read the research notes I amassed when writing ‘The Armstrongs – Celtic Warriors?’ article which was published in the NEWS Issue 71 in 2010. In that piece I mentioned that ‘The Royal Commission on the Ancient Historical Monuments of Scotland’, (RCAHMS), named Borthwick Water as one of several potential Pictish sites of interest in south and south-west Scotland.[i] The Picts inhabited large swathes of the country, particularly the north-east, during the first millennium.
One researcher stated: ‘The Pictish symbol-stone, engraved with a fish, from the Borthwick Water, Roxburghshire, must have been set up amid a community capable of appreciating it. A small Pictish enclave is thus implied.’ However Craig Cessford, archaeologist and author of several works concerning Picts, is one of many who believe the engraving may well be the work of a Briton imitating Pictish art. A stone-walled fort at Carby Hill is also referred to. It is located on the on the east bank of Liddel Water, two miles from Newcastleton. The RCAHMS date it as possibly 200 AD, so also potentially Pictish.[ii]
In 1960, historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas was involved in excavating Trusty’s Hill near Anwoth in Galloway. The hill features Pictish symbols carved on a rock outcrop.[iii] This location is of interest to Armstrongs, as another surname which appears likely to be classified as S389+ is found in large numbers in the region.
Bede, (673-735), was a Northumbrian historian who claimed that St Ninian of Whithorn converted ‘Southern Picts’ to Christianity. The close proximity of Whithorn to the Pictish rock carvings at Anwoth understandably led some first millennium historians to think of Galloway as Pictish. However, many modern authors such as W.A. Cummins believe the Southern Picts inhabited the region north of the Antonine Wall – a barrier which ran roughly from the Forth to the Clyde. The Northern Picts are described as inhabiting the region north of Aberdeen.[iv]
Tim Clarkson, author of ‘The Picts A History’ is one who, due to a lack of any other evidence, doubts a permanent Pictish colony ever settled Galloway. He maintains: ‘The symbols on Trusty’s Hill were carved either by a visiting Pictish craftsman or by a Briton who was familiar with the symbols.’[v] Others believe the hill was captured by a Pictish raiding party who literally left their mark. This may be possible as the Picts travelled great distances in search of plunder.
Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote: ‘They (the Picts) are fond of plundering; consequently they choose their boldest men as rulers’.[vi] Stuart McHardy’s thought-provoking ‘A New History of the Picts’ states that ‘their social organisation was to a considerable extent structured round the reality that all of the physically capable men of the tribe were warriors and that they expressed this through the practice of raiding.’[vii]
In 2013, another survey of Trusty’s Hill was undertaken. The subsequent report quoted medieval historian Professor Richard Oram’s fears that the Pictish symbols may even be relatively modern forgeries.[viii] If his misgivings have substance, then it’s possible that our Armstrong ‘progenitor’ may well have been amongst the northern Picts who swarmed across the Antonine Wall as they harried the Romans during their exodus from Scotland. Alternatively, they may simply have been members of a raiding party. However, if Clarkson, Oram et al are mistaken, then the Armstrongs’ ancestors may well have been dwelling on the border for thousands of years.
Ironically, many of you may have actually trodden on an ancient stone of that age which can be found at Hollows (Gilnockie) Tower in the very heart of the Armstrong Borderland. The RCAHMS states: ‘The sill-stone of the doorway to the ground floor of Hollows Tower bears incised decoration which includes fragments of a triple ring and at least three spirals’.[ix]
Dr. Gordon Noble, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology at Aberdeen University, believes the stone to be ‘part of a tradition of late Neolithic-early Bronze Age rock art, probably around 5,000 years old’. It would be extremely interesting to know where the builders of Hollows Tower found the stone. It’s possible it may have been carved by one of our ancient ancestors!
The Romans invaded Britain in 43AD and in the following decades their highly-efficient army subdued most of the island. In 84AD, Roman forces clashed with a confederation of fiercely independent, unvanquished tribes in the far north of Britain. The Romans gained a victory in a battle at Mons Graupius, believed to be somewhere in Aberdeenshire. However, the invaders were soon forced to retreat further south, and in 122AD the Roman’s erected Hadrian’s Wall in order to contain the defiant population.
In 143AD a second obstacle, the Antonine Wall, had to be constructed to prevent the fearsome warriors from the north attacking Roman positions south of the Forth-Clyde isthmus. These northern tribes were first described as the ‘Picti’ by Eumenius, a Roman panegyrist, in a 297AD document.
The Picts’ constant skirmishing with the Romans, allied to problems in the Romans’ homeland, eventually forced the invaders to depart from Britain. In 390 AD, the Romans left Scotland, having never subjugated the Pictish people. The historian Gildas, (516-570AD), writing in ‘De Excidioet Conquestu Britanniae’[x] stated that the Picts ‘having heard of the departure of our friends, (the Romans), and their resolution never to return, seized with greater boldness than before all the country towards the extreme north as far as the wall’. The wall in this case was Hadrian’s breathtaking structure.
Although the Picts had prevented Roman domination north of the Antonine Wall, they couldn’t stop the permanent settlement of some of their lands by other invaders. The Scotti were among several Irish tribes who colonised western Scotland midway through the first millennium, while the arrival of the Vikings in the late 8th century saw control of the far north of the country wrested from them. Nevertheless, the Picts survived as a strong, independent people in their own right for the majority of the millennium. ‘Pictland’ was absorbed into what became Alba in 904AD, which in turn metamorphosed into Scotia during the 11th century.
Various authors have highlighted the Picts’ adoption of ‘hit-and-run’ tactics when fighting the highly-regimented Romans.[xi] These behavioural traits certainly remind one of the Armstrongs’ 16th century reiving modus operandi! The Armstrongs appear to have felt little guilt about raiding their neighbours’ goods, chattels and livestock. Was this lack of sympathy exaggerated due to echoes of an ancient antipathy against their rival clans, due to their adversaries being non-indigenous and unwelcome interlopers?
Another clue as to our Armstrong progenitor’s roots may be found in our surname. In 2012 I contacted medieval expert Carla Nayland. She stated that the construction of our epithet was typically Welsh/Brythonic. She explained that Newtown in Wales is written as ‘Drenewydd’ in Welsh. In the English form, the generic part (town) is placed at the end of the word, while the specific part describing the town (new) is placed first. The Welsh put ‘Dre’, meaning town first, equating to ‘Town new’.
Armstrong is therefore written in the Welsh/Brythonic style, so not ‘Strongarm’. This is of great interest as most historians believe the Picts spoke a form of language called P-Celtic, similar to that used by the Welsh and other Brythonic Celts. P-Celtic influences are said to exist in the modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages.
The Irish spoke Q-Celtic, which ultimately evolved into Scottish Gaelic, and dominated vast swathes of what we now call Scotland. Unfortunately, the Picts left no written records of their history. Even their stone inscriptions have left experts arguing as to their precise meaning.
Another major bone of contention amongst historians is how and when the Picts arrived in Britain. Bede wrote that they ‘put to sea from Scythia in a few ships of war’ before entering Scotland via Ireland’s north coast.[xii] Scythia is described by some as being a country near the Black Sea, while others think it referred to Scandinavia. An Iberian origin for the Picts is another theory that has some support.
Sadly, the first millennium chroniclers often wove legend, mythology and wishful thinking into their work! However, logic suggests that the Picts’ ancestors may well have inhabited Scotland for thousands of years. Hopefully, science will eventually solve some of these mysteries.
DNA testing is increasing in volume. It’s possible that in the next few months there’ll be enough data available to more accurately estimate the time when the various S389+ testees shared a common ancestor. Dr. Jim Wilson explained: ‘The lengths of the branches from S116 down to the S389 node, and from there down to the individual testees, will provide information on whether the marker is pre-Pictish or Pictish. Either way, S389 is still clearly a marker of the ancient inhabitants of what is now Scotland; the only question is at what time’.
Jim explained that he’d found S389+ in some thirty-three people, seven of whom were Armstrongs. He pointed out that: ‘It is very Scottish, focused on central and north-east Scotland’. He stated that S389+ was found in approximately 0.5% of British men, but topped 1% in N. E. Scotland. It was much lower in England south of Cumberland, and lower still in Wales and Eire. Jim highlighted the fact that the frequency distribution is ‘a classic signature of a Pictish type’. He suggested I encourage a variety of surnames from the S389+ group to take deep Y-DNA tests in order to enable a more accurate assessment of when we all shared a common ancestor. Jim believes that our Armstrong mainstream’s ancestors weren’t Flemings, but likely to be Picts, or an even older tribe!
Jim’s Pictish revelation sent me scurrying to re-read the research notes I amassed when writing ‘The Armstrongs – Celtic Warriors?’ article which was published in the NEWS Issue 71 in 2010. In that piece I mentioned that ‘The Royal Commission on the Ancient Historical Monuments of Scotland’, (RCAHMS), named Borthwick Water as one of several potential Pictish sites of interest in south and south-west Scotland.[i] The Picts inhabited large swathes of the country, particularly the north-east, during the first millennium.
One researcher stated: ‘The Pictish symbol-stone, engraved with a fish, from the Borthwick Water, Roxburghshire, must have been set up amid a community capable of appreciating it. A small Pictish enclave is thus implied.’ However Craig Cessford, archaeologist and author of several works concerning Picts, is one of many who believe the engraving may well be the work of a Briton imitating Pictish art. A stone-walled fort at Carby Hill is also referred to. It is located on the on the east bank of Liddel Water, two miles from Newcastleton. The RCAHMS date it as possibly 200 AD, so also potentially Pictish.[ii]
In 1960, historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas was involved in excavating Trusty’s Hill near Anwoth in Galloway. The hill features Pictish symbols carved on a rock outcrop.[iii] This location is of interest to Armstrongs, as another surname which appears likely to be classified as S389+ is found in large numbers in the region.
Bede, (673-735), was a Northumbrian historian who claimed that St Ninian of Whithorn converted ‘Southern Picts’ to Christianity. The close proximity of Whithorn to the Pictish rock carvings at Anwoth understandably led some first millennium historians to think of Galloway as Pictish. However, many modern authors such as W.A. Cummins believe the Southern Picts inhabited the region north of the Antonine Wall – a barrier which ran roughly from the Forth to the Clyde. The Northern Picts are described as inhabiting the region north of Aberdeen.[iv]
Tim Clarkson, author of ‘The Picts A History’ is one who, due to a lack of any other evidence, doubts a permanent Pictish colony ever settled Galloway. He maintains: ‘The symbols on Trusty’s Hill were carved either by a visiting Pictish craftsman or by a Briton who was familiar with the symbols.’[v] Others believe the hill was captured by a Pictish raiding party who literally left their mark. This may be possible as the Picts travelled great distances in search of plunder.
Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote: ‘They (the Picts) are fond of plundering; consequently they choose their boldest men as rulers’.[vi] Stuart McHardy’s thought-provoking ‘A New History of the Picts’ states that ‘their social organisation was to a considerable extent structured round the reality that all of the physically capable men of the tribe were warriors and that they expressed this through the practice of raiding.’[vii]
In 2013, another survey of Trusty’s Hill was undertaken. The subsequent report quoted medieval historian Professor Richard Oram’s fears that the Pictish symbols may even be relatively modern forgeries.[viii] If his misgivings have substance, then it’s possible that our Armstrong ‘progenitor’ may well have been amongst the northern Picts who swarmed across the Antonine Wall as they harried the Romans during their exodus from Scotland. Alternatively, they may simply have been members of a raiding party. However, if Clarkson, Oram et al are mistaken, then the Armstrongs’ ancestors may well have been dwelling on the border for thousands of years.
Ironically, many of you may have actually trodden on an ancient stone of that age which can be found at Hollows (Gilnockie) Tower in the very heart of the Armstrong Borderland. The RCAHMS states: ‘The sill-stone of the doorway to the ground floor of Hollows Tower bears incised decoration which includes fragments of a triple ring and at least three spirals’.[ix]
Dr. Gordon Noble, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology at Aberdeen University, believes the stone to be ‘part of a tradition of late Neolithic-early Bronze Age rock art, probably around 5,000 years old’. It would be extremely interesting to know where the builders of Hollows Tower found the stone. It’s possible it may have been carved by one of our ancient ancestors!
The Romans invaded Britain in 43AD and in the following decades their highly-efficient army subdued most of the island. In 84AD, Roman forces clashed with a confederation of fiercely independent, unvanquished tribes in the far north of Britain. The Romans gained a victory in a battle at Mons Graupius, believed to be somewhere in Aberdeenshire. However, the invaders were soon forced to retreat further south, and in 122AD the Roman’s erected Hadrian’s Wall in order to contain the defiant population.
In 143AD a second obstacle, the Antonine Wall, had to be constructed to prevent the fearsome warriors from the north attacking Roman positions south of the Forth-Clyde isthmus. These northern tribes were first described as the ‘Picti’ by Eumenius, a Roman panegyrist, in a 297AD document.
The Picts’ constant skirmishing with the Romans, allied to problems in the Romans’ homeland, eventually forced the invaders to depart from Britain. In 390 AD, the Romans left Scotland, having never subjugated the Pictish people. The historian Gildas, (516-570AD), writing in ‘De Excidioet Conquestu Britanniae’[x] stated that the Picts ‘having heard of the departure of our friends, (the Romans), and their resolution never to return, seized with greater boldness than before all the country towards the extreme north as far as the wall’. The wall in this case was Hadrian’s breathtaking structure.
Although the Picts had prevented Roman domination north of the Antonine Wall, they couldn’t stop the permanent settlement of some of their lands by other invaders. The Scotti were among several Irish tribes who colonised western Scotland midway through the first millennium, while the arrival of the Vikings in the late 8th century saw control of the far north of the country wrested from them. Nevertheless, the Picts survived as a strong, independent people in their own right for the majority of the millennium. ‘Pictland’ was absorbed into what became Alba in 904AD, which in turn metamorphosed into Scotia during the 11th century.
Various authors have highlighted the Picts’ adoption of ‘hit-and-run’ tactics when fighting the highly-regimented Romans.[xi] These behavioural traits certainly remind one of the Armstrongs’ 16th century reiving modus operandi! The Armstrongs appear to have felt little guilt about raiding their neighbours’ goods, chattels and livestock. Was this lack of sympathy exaggerated due to echoes of an ancient antipathy against their rival clans, due to their adversaries being non-indigenous and unwelcome interlopers?
Another clue as to our Armstrong progenitor’s roots may be found in our surname. In 2012 I contacted medieval expert Carla Nayland. She stated that the construction of our epithet was typically Welsh/Brythonic. She explained that Newtown in Wales is written as ‘Drenewydd’ in Welsh. In the English form, the generic part (town) is placed at the end of the word, while the specific part describing the town (new) is placed first. The Welsh put ‘Dre’, meaning town first, equating to ‘Town new’.
Armstrong is therefore written in the Welsh/Brythonic style, so not ‘Strongarm’. This is of great interest as most historians believe the Picts spoke a form of language called P-Celtic, similar to that used by the Welsh and other Brythonic Celts. P-Celtic influences are said to exist in the modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages.
The Irish spoke Q-Celtic, which ultimately evolved into Scottish Gaelic, and dominated vast swathes of what we now call Scotland. Unfortunately, the Picts left no written records of their history. Even their stone inscriptions have left experts arguing as to their precise meaning.
Another major bone of contention amongst historians is how and when the Picts arrived in Britain. Bede wrote that they ‘put to sea from Scythia in a few ships of war’ before entering Scotland via Ireland’s north coast.[xii] Scythia is described by some as being a country near the Black Sea, while others think it referred to Scandinavia. An Iberian origin for the Picts is another theory that has some support.
Sadly, the first millennium chroniclers often wove legend, mythology and wishful thinking into their work! However, logic suggests that the Picts’ ancestors may well have inhabited Scotland for thousands of years. Hopefully, science will eventually solve some of these mysteries.
DNA testing is increasing in volume. It’s possible that in the next few months there’ll be enough data available to more accurately estimate the time when the various S389+ testees shared a common ancestor. Dr. Jim Wilson explained: ‘The lengths of the branches from S116 down to the S389 node, and from there down to the individual testees, will provide information on whether the marker is pre-Pictish or Pictish. Either way, S389 is still clearly a marker of the ancient inhabitants of what is now Scotland; the only question is at what time’.
© Bob Armstrong - 23rd February 2015