First found in the county of Yorkshire in eastern England, where they held a family seat from very ancient times.

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Armitage surname or a spelling variation of the name include : Godfrey Armitage of Lynn moved to Boston, Mass. in 1639; and Eleazor in 1669 was living in Lynn, Mass.

Motto Translated: Always prepared.

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