Armstrong, James Rogers

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE:  J. K. Johnson, “ARMSTRONG, JAMES ROGERS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/armstrong_james_rogers_10E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Merchant, foundry owner, and politician; b. 17 April 1787 at Dorchester (Iberville), Que., son of an Irish father, John Armstrong, and Mary Rogers, oldest daughter of loyalist Major James Rogers who commanded a battalion of King’s Rangers during the American Revolution; d. 13 July 1873 at Whitby, Ont.
    • After the early death of both his parents, James Rogers Armstrong was in 1796 sent to school in Vermont. He was living in Upper Canada by 1807, when on 9 October he married, at Hallowell (later part of Picton), Hannah Dougall, daughter of William Dougall, a pioneer Prince Edward County doctor. Armstrong acquired land in Hallowell Township (and, as the son of a loyalist, in Vaughan Township, York County) and farmed in Hallowell for a short time. He then became a merchant, first in Picton, then in Kingston about 1822, and finally in York where he opened a dry goods store in 1828. Some time in the 1840s he established the Toronto firm of J. R. Armstrong and Company, Toronto City Foundry, which specialized in the manufacturing of stoves, some of them of Armstrong’s own design. At the age of 69 he moved to Whitby, where he spent the rest of his life, leaving the management of the company to his son James Rogers Armstrong.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7092
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40878649/james-rogers-armstrong