Adam Pearson Armstrong was an early European settler in the Perth suburb of Dalkeith, Western Australia. The suburb is named after Armstrong's cottage. Armstrong influenced development in the Swan River colony with properties in both Dalkeith and in his later property in Ravenswood.
Early life
Armstrong was born on 23 February 1788 in Smeaton, near Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. His middle name "Pearson" was not on his birth certificate. Confusion concerning a Captain Armstrong who served in the Peninsular Wars and lost an eye, was at one time taken as accurate but disproved later. In 1810 he married Margaret Gow, whose father Nathaniel Gow and grandfather Niel Gow were celebrated Scottish musicians. Musical interests were evident in the family, and a harmonium they brought out is displayed, with other family memorabilia, in the Azelia Ley Homestead Museum in Hamilton Hill. In 1811, Armstrong bought a part of the Drum coalfield in Scotland. However the Drum Colliery Company failed due to flooding issues and the availability of cheaper coal from England. Armstrong moved his family to England and then to Wales. In Wales, his last position prior to moving to London was as an agent for William Edward Powell, who owned the Nanteos estate. Such was the friendship between the two that when Armstrong's only daughter was born he named her after Powell's wife Laura. Armstrong was dismissed from Nanteos and went to London, where he found clerical work with Thomas Peel at 1 Eagle Place, Piccadilly. Peel was taking up an offer by Captain James Stirling to provide free settlers the opportunity to move to the new settlement on the Swan River in Western Australia.
Australia
Peel had been promised land grants if he arrived at the colony before 1 November 1829, but on arrival with the Armstrongs on on 15th December 1829 discovered this land had been given to someone else. His other ships, and, were also carrying settlers so he was persuaded to accept an area of land named Clarence, between the present day suburbs of Mandurah and Rockingham and inland to Pinjarra. Armstrong was Peel's surveyor and he took up a parcel of land with good water to establish a farm on the Murray River that he named Ravenswood, establishing one of many Scottish connections. The family struggled to survive initially, in shelters made of wooden horse stalls, barrels and canvas, and eating food mostly brought by English ships. Attempts at farming were unsuccessful because of winter flooding and the theft of stock, so six families who had hoped to live there all returned to Perth and Fremantle. Armstrong acquired land in Fremantle, lot numbers P99 and P84 around Thompson Street, Harbour Street Laneway and Quarry Street. He had befriended Captain Currie, the harbour master who lived on Crawley Bay, and the Armstrong children were to stay there until their father found a better place. Armstrong had no money for provisions, relying on loans to buy food for his family. He was granted Swan Location 85 comprising on 18 September 1831. He dug the water well that can still be seen at the site, built a cottage on the foreshore using limestone from the cliff, becoming Nedlands' first European settler. The surrounding bush and pastureland was cultivated successfully by the Armstrong family, with Adam naming their new home Dalkeith Cottage after the Scottish town where he grew up. When he came to sell his land in 1838, he had developed a farm of about on the fertile soil of the foreshore of Melville Water. The farm vines were expected to produce of grapes and, as well as other fruit and vegetables with over of melons, and as a goat run it was unsurpassed. While the Dalkeith farm was successful and recognised throughout the colony, it could not grow wheat or support enough cattle to sustain his family. Dalkeith Cottage was offered as a bargain, selling for 250 pounds, allowing the Armstrong family to return to the Murray region in comfort.
Family life
Armstrong had several children, of whom six survived:
Upon leaving Dalkeith, Armstrong returned to his former cottage at Ravenswood where he spent his remaining days in relative prosperity. He died there of "Paralysis and general decay of nature" in 1853, when he was 65 years.
Posterity
The name Dalkeith has survived and now refers to the Perth suburb now considered one of the most expensive and wealthiest in Australia. It is also considerably larger than Armstrong's initial land grant. The oldest maps name the area Melville Waters, with early settlers actually living in what was called Claremont. Later, city developers tried to sell the township of South Nedlands, but the name Dalkeith survived, as a legacy of Armstrong, the first settler. His descendants still have strong connections to the Murray area as well as spreading all over the world. While the initial link with Dalkeith was broken, some descendants have since returned and made their own contributions to the City of Nedlands community.
