Francis Armstrong (missionary)

Biography

Armstrong was born on 22 November 1813 in Scotland, at the town of Dalkeith, from where his father and siblings emigrated in 1829. They travelled to the colony in Western Australia, disembarking at Fremantle and settling on the Swan River at a district that came to be known as the suburb of Dalkeith, Western Australia. Armstrong joined with the Methodists who settled at Tranby House and was active in He was superintendent of a Christian mission established for the displaced inhabitants at the Perth Water foreshore near Mount Eliza. His appointment to the mission brought him into closer contact with Nyungar peoples, where he assimilated the language and published texts on some dialectal variants. He was appointed by the administration of the colony to the role of interpreter in December 1834.

Armstrong made collections of birds that were amongst the earliest contributions to the ornithology of the state. The botanist Alex George noted his work in obtaining and preserving plants and animals for sale, but states he is not recorded as the collector of taxonomic specimens. The ornithologists Dominic Serventy and Hubert Whittell assume that Armstrong was advised and aided in obtaining birds by his Nyungar friends and associates, and later encounters with the professional field workers John Gilbert and Ludwig Preiss. He recorded in a letter that his spare time was focused on birds, and had advertised his services and collections of prepared specimens for sale.

He died at Perth on 22 May 1897. A window at the Wesley Church commemorates his contributions. A text published in 1836 was reissued in 1979 as part of a collection on Nyungar people.

He was the eldest son of Captain Adam Armstrong.

A little later Armstrong went to work in Perth for George Fletcher Moore, who kept a small store. Then, for a number of years, he managed a store for George Shenton in St George's Terrace. Still later, he entered into business for himself as a grain and produce and commission agent. From this business and several others he ventured into he acquired sufficient wealth to give him a modest retirement.

Methodism and interactions with Aboriginal people

The young Armstrong was associated with the Tranby Methodists and helped to establish the first Methodist congregation in Western Australia.

Armstrong never forgot his early contact with the local Aboriginal people and it became his overriding ambition to do all he could to improve their lot. He became proficient in the Nyungar language that he eventually wrote or assisted in writing two books translating some of its dialects into English. Before either government or church interest was stirred to the plight of Aboriginal people, Armstrong was seeking to improve their circumstances and better their lives. At the age of 21, Armstrong was appointed the official "Government Interpreter and Moral Agent" for Aboriginal people on a salary of £90 a year.

In 1841, Governor John Hutt the governor granted to the Methodists an annual subsidy of £75 to help establish a mission for the Aboriginal people at Perth, on the foreshore near Mount's Bay. It was to Francis and Mary Armstrong, that the Rev. John Smithies, the first minister of Wesley Church entrusted the superintendency of this mission. The Methodist Aboriginal Mission, under the supervision of Armstrong, baptised a number of Aboriginal people at Wesley Church .

Hutt later asked Armstrong to investigate the treatment of Aboriginal prisoners at the prison on Rottnest Island. In spite of a previous enquiry, complaints of the treatment meted out to Aboriginal prisoners continued to come to the governor's ears. Armstrong reported: "It is refusal to work that brings on the punishment they complain of. This has been with the worst characters some of them who have robbed the store, killed the poultry and run off into the bush ... The number of strips [lashes] is limited to 36, and I would respectfully suggest that it might he reduced to half that number and that only in extreme cases and immediately under the direction of Mr Vincent." However complaints about Rottnest continued and Armstrong was involved in yet another enquiry. For a short period after that he served as Storekeeper and Moral Agent on the island, and was directed "to improve the habits and morals of the prisoners". Vincent, the Superintendent of the prison, would not cooperate with Armstrong, who was soon transferred back to Perth.

Armstrong was a lay leader in Wesley Church and was also associated in the founding of the first Methodist Sunday school in the colony. Armstrong also worked for the cause of temperance and other Methodist causes.

He died in 1897, after suffering from influenza.

Personal life

In 1836, he married Mary Mews, second daughter of T W Mews. Mary was a devout Anglican and like her husband was greatly interested in the welfare of the local aboriginal peoples. They had four sons and five daughters.

General references

• Ronald E Turner, Foundations Not Made with Hands (Perth, 1984);
• Wesley Lutton, The Wesley Story (Perth, 1970);
• Thomas Farmer, Journal (Battye Library);
• William McNair, 'Righteousness Developed into Intelligent Goodness' (Western Methodist, Sept 1965);
• William McNair and Hilary Rumley, Pioneer Aboriginal Mission (Perth, 1981)

References

References

1. "Francis Fraser Armstrong". Monument Australia.
2. (1951). "A handbook of the birds of Western Australia (with the exception of the Kimberley division)". Paterson Brokensha.
3. "Francis Fraser Armstrong: biography". Australian National Herbarium.
4. Armstrong, Francis Fraser. (1979). "Manners and habits of the Aborigines of Western Australia". National Libraries of Australia.