William Nevins Armstrong

He was born in Lahaina on the island of Maui, the third of ten children of missionaries Clarissa Chapman Armstrong and Richard Armstrong, who later served as the second kahu (pastor) of Kawaiahaʻo Church, and subsequently was appointed President of the Board of Education for the Kingdom of Hawaii. William was given the name of his older brother who died in infancy.{{harvnb|Armstrong|1887|p=17}} His grandfather Samuel Chapman was one of the founders of Russell, Massachusetts.{{cite web|title=Russell — Early Settlement|url=http://www.hampdencountyhistory.com/russell/everts/03.html|publisher=Hampton County History|access-date=December 22, 2016}} Samuel C. Armstrong, his younger brother, was founder of Hampton University.{{cite news|title=William N. Armstrong|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1905-10-17/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Hawaiian Gazette|date=October 17, 1905|location=Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii|page=4}}

Young William was enrolled at Punahou School in Honolulu in 1842.{{harvnb|Punahou School|1866|p=5}} By the age of 12, he was already looking ahead to fund his college education and was working part-time as a bookbinder.{{cite news|title=Finds by the Archivarian|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1905-11-10/ed-1/seq-6/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Hawaiian Gazette|date=November 10, 1905|location=Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii|page=6}} In 1849, he and schoolmate Charles Hastings Judd, as children of ministers of the cabinet of Kamehameha III, attended the Royal School. They formed a lifelong friendship with a younger schoolmate, future King of Hawaii David Kalākaua.{{harvnb|Armstrong|1904|p=9}} When he was 15 years old, his mother accompanied him to the mainland United States,{{harvnb|Armstrong|1887|p=46}} where he was enrolled in the university preparatory Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts.{{cite book |last1=Mowry |first1=William Augustus |title=Recollections of a New England Educator, 1838-1908: reminiscences - biographical, pedagogical, historical |date=1908 |publisher=Silver, Burdett and Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/recollectionsan00mowrgoog/page/n82 66] |url=https://archive.org/details/recollectionsan00mowrgoog|quote=william armstrong phillips academy. |author-link=William Augustus Mowry}}

A graduate of Yale University, he studied law under the tutelage of his uncle, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Reuben Atwater Chapman. He was admitted to the Bar in 1859 and practiced at Wheeler & Armstrong.{{harvnb|Yale University|1905|pp=567–568}}{{cite web|title=Guide to the William Nevins Armstrong Papers MS 39|url=http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.0039&query=&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes&hlon=yes&big=&adv=&filter=&hitPageStart=&sortFields=&view=all|publisher=Yale University Library|access-date=December 22, 2016}}

When King Kalākaua visited New York City on his way to Washington, D.C., to negotiate the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, Armstrong was his liaison with the city.{{cite news|title=Our Royal Guest: King Kalakaua to be Entertained by the Mayor and Common Council|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1874-12-23/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The New York Herald|date=December 23, 1874|location=New York, NY|page=5}}

For the rest of his life, Armstrong lived in Hawaii for extended periods, but also spent extended periods with his family in Virginia. By 1880, he was again living in Hawaii. From November 29, 1880, to May 19, 1882, Armstrong was a member of the House of Nobles in the legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii.{{harvnb|Hawaii|Lydecker|1918|page=286}}

King Kalākaua appointed him Attorney General of the Kingdom of Hawaii in December 1880.{{cite news|title=City Directory: The Cabinet|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1880-12-04/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=December 4, 1880|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}} Shortly thereafter, he was invited to participate in Kalākaua's 1881 world tour, an endeavor to encourage plantation labor immigration to Hawaii.{{harvnb|Armstrong|1904|p=1-1}} Before sailing, Kalākaua appointed him Royal Commissioner of Immigration to authorize him to negotiate with foreign governments.{{cite news|title=Island Locals|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1881-01-19/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Hawaiian Gazette|date=January 19, 1881|location=Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii}}; {{cite news |title=Proclamation |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1881-02-05/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=February 5, 1881|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}} It was his responsibility to compile a feasibility study of each country they visited, reporting back on which nations were likely to provide "a desirable population" for the Hawaiian labor force. Together with Chamberlain Colonel Charles Hastings Judd, and cook Robert von Oelhoffen, they circumnavigated the world from February 22 to October 29, visiting Asia, the Mideast and Europe. At the end, they took a railroad train trip from the east coast of the United States to California, and sailed back to Hawaii.{{cite news|title=King Kalakaua's Tour: A Talk With His Attorney General|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025121/1881-10-12/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Hawaiian Gazette|date=October 12, 1881|location=Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii}}

In Japan, both Armstrong and Judd had been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun during a ceremony in which Kalākaua was presented with the Order of the Chrysanthemum.{{cite web|title=David Kalakaua|url=http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=David_Kalakaua|website=The Samurai Archives|publisher=SamaraiWiki}}

Upon their return, he resumed the position of Attorney General and held it until May 1882.{{cite news|title=City Directory: The Cabinet|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1880-12-04/ed-1/seq-4/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=December 4, 1880|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}}; {{harvnb|Kuykendall|1967|pp=252, 254}}; {{cite news |title=Inspectors of Election|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1881-12-24/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=December 24, 1881|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}} Concurrently in that year, Armstrong held the positions of president of the Board of Immigration,{{harvnb|Forbes|2003|pp=36–37}} president of the Board of Health, and Commissioner of Crown Lands.{{harvnb|Forbes|2003|pp=35–36}} He was Chairman of the Labor Commission in 1894-1885.{{harvnb|Forbes|2003|pp=36–37}}; {{cite news|title=The Labor Commission |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1894-11-02/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=November 2, 1894|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|page=7}}

In 1885 he returned to tend to the family oyster farming business in Virginia, helping organize the Oyster Convention in Hampton to convince the state legislature to allow privatization of oyster beds.{{cite news|title=The Succulent Oyster|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038614/1885-12-18/ed-1/seq-2/|access-date=December 22, 2016|agency=The Richmond Dispatch|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|date=December 18, 1885|location=Richmond, VA}} He later served as a commissioner of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

From 1897 through 1899, he was editor of the Honolulu daily newspaper The Pacific Commercial Advertiser.{{cite news|title=Local Brevities|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1897-08-03/ed-1/seq-7/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=August 3, 1897|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|page=7}} After returning to the mainland, he continued his reporting for the newspaper.{{cite news|title=The Debate on Hawaii, Described as Heard by W. N. Armstrong|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1900-04-25/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=April 25, 1900|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}}

The detailed journal he had kept of the world trip with Kalākaua was published as Around the World with a King in 1904, the year before Armstrong died.{{cite news|title=Out Today – Around the World with a King|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1904-03-19/ed-1/seq-9/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|work=The Sun|date=March 19, 1904|location=New York, NY|page=9}}; {{cite news|title=Kalākaua I. The Story of His Trip Around the World in 1881 |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1904-05-28/ed-1/seq-17/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The New York Tribune|date=May 28, 1904|location=New York, NY|page=5}} This publication has been criticized for errors, inconsistencies and Armstrong's satirical writing style.

He wed Mary Frances Morgan on April 10, 1867. She predeceased him in 1903.{{cite news|title=Local and General News|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047097/1903-02-10/ed-1/seq-3/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|work=The Independent|date=February 10, 1903|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands}} The couple maintained a home in Virginia, and were the parents of a daughter Dorothy, and three sons, Matthew, Richard and Kalani.

Armstrong had been suffering from liver disease for a few years, and succumbed to catarrh at Garfield Hospital in {{nowrap|Washington D. C.}} on October 15, 1905.{{cite news|title=W. N. Armstrong Dies at Seventy|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016413/1905-10-16/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Evening Bulletin|date=October 16, 1905|location=Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii|pages=1, 8}}; {{cite news|title=Death of a Kamaaina|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1905-10-17/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=October 17, 1905|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|pages=1, 2}} He was cremated, and his ashes were returned to Hawaii and buried along with his parents at Kawaiahaʻo Church cemetery.{{cite news|title=Armstrong's Ashes Arrived|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1905-12-23/ed-1/seq-6/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=December 23, 1905|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|page=6}}; {{cite news|title=Mr. Armstrong Had Disease of the Liver|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1905-10-26/ed-1/seq-1/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=October 26, 1905|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|page=1}}

{{Reflist|33em}}

• {{cite book|last1=Armstrong|first1=Mrs. Mary Frances Morgan|title=Richard Armstrong|series=Port. Of Richard Armstrong |date=1887|publisher=Normal School Stream Press|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100380771|via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book|last1=Armstrong|first1=William N.|title=Around the World with a King|date=1904|publisher=F. A. Stokes Company|location=New York, NY|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008585037|via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book|last1=Forbes|first1=David W.|title=Hawaiian National Bibliography, 1780–1900: Vol. 4: 1881–1900|date=2003|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2636-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAuzOipG26YC&q=1882+hawaii+President+of+the+Board+of+Health+armstrong&pg=PA36}}
• {{cite book|author=Hawaii|editor-last=Lydecker|editor-first=Robert Colfax|title=Roster Legislatures of Hawaii, 1841–1918|location=Honolulu|publisher=Hawaiian Gazette Company|year=1918|url=https://archive.org/details/rosterlegislatur00hawarich|oclc=60737418|ref={{harvid|Hawaii|Lydecker|1918}}}}
• {{cite book|last=Kuykendall|first=Ralph Simpson|author-link=Ralph Simpson Kuykendall|title=The Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, The Kalakaua Dynasty|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom3&l=en|volume=3|year=1967|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-87022-433-1|oclc=500374815}}
• {{cite book|last1=Punahou School|title=Catalogue of the teachers and pupils of Punahou school and Oahu College for twenty-five years, ending 1866, with an account of the quarter century celebration held at Punahou June 15th, 1866|date=1866|publisher= Punahou School|location=Honolulu, HI|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011536898|via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book|last1=Yale University|title=Obituary Records of Yale University|date=1905|publisher=Obituary Records of Yale University |location=New Haven, CT.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000525767|via=HathiTrust}}

• {{cite news |title=Report of His Excellency W. N. Armstrong, His Hawaiian Majesty's Commissioner of Immigration, To His Excellency H. A. P. Carter|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015418/1881-12-17/ed-1/seq-5/|access-date=December 22, 2016|via=Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.|publisher=The Pacific Commercial Advertiser|date=December 17, 1881|location=Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands|issue=Supplement}}
• {{cite book|last1=Armstrong|first1=Mrs. Mary Frances Morgan|title=Hampton Institute, 1868 to 1885 : Its Work for Two Races|date=1885|publisher=Normal School Press Print|location=Hampton, VA|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100604036|via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book|last1=Cooke|first1=Amos Starr|last2=Richards|first2=Mary (Atherton) Mrs.|last3=Cooke|first3=Juliette (Montague) Mrs.|title=The Chiefs' children's school a record compiled from the diary and letters of Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke, by their granddaughter. Mary Atherton Richards. |date=1937|publisher=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|location=Honolulu, HI|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001873424|via=HathiTrust}}

{{Commons category|William Nevins Armstrong}}

• {{Find a Grave|24411019|William Nevins Armstrong}}
• {{cite book |title=All about Hawaii. The recognized book of authentic information on Hawaii, combined with Thrum's Hawaiian annual and standard guide |date=1891 |publisher=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |pages=92–97 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000598560 |format=(original from University of Michigan)|via=HathiTrust}}

:"A List of All the Cabinet Ministers Who Have Held Office in the Hawaiian Kingdom"

• {{cite web |last1=Woods |first1=Roberta |title=LibGuides: Hawai'i Legal Research: Attorney General Opinions |url=https://law-hawaii.libguides.com/hawaii/attorneygeneral |website=law-hawaii.libguides.com}}

:Includes a list of Attorneys General for the Kingdom of Hawaii, their salaries and budgets

{{Attorneys General of Hawaii}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, William Nevins}}

Category:1835 births

Category:1905 deaths

Category:Hawaiian Kingdom politicians

Category:Hawaiian Kingdom attorneys general

Category:Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom House of Nobles

Category:Punahou School alumni

Category:Royal School (Hawaii) alumni

Category:Phillips Academy alumni

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:People from Virginia

Category:Burials at Kawaiahaʻo Church

Category:Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun

Category:Editors of Hawaii newspapers

Category:Massachusetts lawyers