Armstrong’s Family
Mother: Anne Armstrong
Anne Armstrong (1778–1848), a member of the influential Potter family, was described in a memoir by her grandson, William Watson-Armstrong, as ‘a lady of considerable literary culture, greatly beloved by all who knew her’, but little first-hand evidence of her character survives. She probably met her future husband at one of the monthly meetings of the Lit & Phil. They married in 1801 and their daughter, Anne, was born the following year, followed eight years later by their son, William. William junior is said always to have spoken of her in most affectionate terms. In later life he built a row of almshouses in Rothbury and dedicated them to his mother’s memory.
Anne’s brother was the redoubtable Addison Langhorn Potter, a brewer and coal-owner who became a key partner in his nephew William’s early business ventures and, later, mayor of Newcastle. He was a close associate of Armorer Donkin. In 1840 Potter bought the long-established Heaton estate on eastern edge of Newcastle and from the remains of Heaton Hall built himself an imposing new residence in a style since ridiculed as ‘pastrycook Gothic’.
Father: William Armstrong
Born in Cumberland near the Roman Wall, William Armstrong senior (1778–1857) was the son of a village shoemaker and descended from generations of border reivers. A natural mathematician, he was first employed as a counting-house clerk on the Newcastle quayside. An early member of the Lit & Phil, he became a successful corn merchant, a leading member of Newcastle’s social elite and, eventually, town mayor, following in the footsteps of his brother-in-law, Addison Potter.
Initially sceptical of his son’s passion for ‘mechanics’, William senior tried to steer him towards a career in the law. It took the intervention of the pioneering hydraulics engineer James Meadows Rendel to persuade the father that there was a profitable business to be made from the production of hydraulic cranes and other machinery.
When William senior died, 1,284 of his books were gifted to the Lit & Phil, giving it a matchless mathematical collection. He had helped to found both the local Natural History Society and the Newcastle chamber of commerce, and as chairman of the river committee he had overseen vital improvements to the Tyne navigation.
Sister: Anne Armstrong
Since William and Margaret Armstrong died without a direct heir, it was through the descendants of Anne Armstrong junior (1802–28), William’s sister, that the Armstrong line was kept alive.
In 1826 Anne married William Watson, a dashing former soldier from Bamburgh, who had served under Wellington in the Peninsular War, and had since pursued a career in the law. Their only child, John William Watson, known as Johnny, was born on 23 May 1827, but Anne herself died just over a year later, at the age of 25.
Johnny Watson was a lonely character who suffered from depression in later life. His only son – Anne’s grandson – inherited a vast personal fortune from his great-uncle Lord Armstrong (who had been raised to the peerage in 1887), including the estates at Cragside and Bamburgh.
In 1903 William Henry Armstrong Fitzpatrick Watson-Armstrong, as the great-nephew was called, was made the first Baron Armstrong of the second creation, known officially as Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside (see family tree, below).
Wife: Margaret Armstrong
Margaret Ramshaw (1806–93), who married William Armstrong in 1835, played a crucial role in many aspects of her husband’s life. Her father, William Ramshaw, ran an engineering works in Bishop Auckland, where Armstrong attended grammar school – and where he met his future wife. She was renowned as a botanist and plantswoman and for her design of Cragside’s five-acre rock garden, the largest in Europe.
The couple built a home in Jesmond, on the eastern edge of Newcastle, where they had been given some land, and over the years they gradually acquired more and more land in Jesmond Dene, a steep-sided valley following the course of the meandering Ouseburn, which was farmed or laid out as pleasure grounds. Over a 20-year period, the Dene was transformed by the addition of a waterfall, rapids, stepping stones, a grotto and several bridges, and the planting of many trees and shrubs. In 1883 Jesmond Dene was handed over to the citizens of Newcastle as a public park.
An even more ambitious planting programme took place at Cragside, with Margaret at the helm. She engaged the leading designers of the day, including William Morris and Philip Webb, to add features and decorate the interior. Her love of art and music was complemented by generous gifts to philanthopic causes associated with education, health and the welfare of children – particularly poignant as she had no children of her own.
