History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

ioo THE JOHNSTOUNS IN EDINBURGH
Abraham Carruthers £g, os. iod. ; Sir Robert Maxwell £12 ; Gideon Murray
10 marks ; and many more in Dumfriesshire besides the representatives of
other counties— Livingstons, Kers, Scotts, the tutor of Warriestoun, Ramsay,
Cathcarts, Olifants, Borthwicks, Irvings, Jardines, Murrays, Maxwells,
Stewarts, Carmichaels, Cockburn, Abercrombie, Armstrongs, David Wemyss,
the old Lady Merchiston, Montgomery, the tutor of Bombie (M'Clellan),
Fergusson, Welsh, Wilsons, Hendersons, Thomsons, Richardsons, Fleming,
Hacket, Trotter, etc.—in all, the deceased was owed £12,137, I2S - On his
part, he owed his brother David, £600 ; to Symon Johnstoun, the lawful son of
the late Symon, a merchant burgess in Dumfries, 800 marks ; to a burgess of
Selkirk £1400 ; and to Lady Newbie, his mother, 525 marks. Possibly these
sums had been placed in his charge as an investment, the usual way of securing
money before banks were introduced.
Including the sums owed to himself, John left £19,935, 3s. yd. after
deducting the deposits. His executors were his widow and his brother, David.
He divided his fortune between his widow and his children, with the exception
of legacies to his mother, his brother Abraham, his sister Margaret, Lady
Barndaroch, and two or three more; 100 marks "to the poor of the hospital
of Edinburgh;" and 100 marks 1 to a kirk when it should be built "in this burgh
of Edinburgh," and the money to remain in his executors' hands till it was built.
If his widow remarried, his eldest daughter, Marion, was to be "nourished and
brought up in company with Archibald Johnstoun and Rachel Arnot, his wife,
until the said Marion be of perfect age or provided in marriage at the pleasure
of God." His two elder sons, John and James, were in the same case to
be under the guardianship of their uncle, David ; the younger children, Thomas,
Helen, and Janet, to remain with their mother.
John, the eldest son, was returned heir to his father in 1603, Archibald
Johnstoun, as a baillie of Edinburgh, being president of the inquisition.
He was married to Margaret Smyth in 161 8, and his mother, a party to
the contract for his marriage settlement, died before the wedding day. The
parents of the bride provided 8000 marks and the bridegroom 4000 marks, all
of which sum was to be invested in land and settled on them both jointly, and
on the longest liver of the two. John's family had lost Newbie, and was
just parting with Graitney, but he naturally turned to Dumfriesshire, and by
the advice of Lord Wigton and his uncle, Duncan Hunter of Ballagan, who
were securities, he invested the money in a mortgage on Sir William Douglas's
Dumfriesshire property—the castle, estates, etc. of Drumlanrig—and on Kirkton
and Crumhauch, owned by another Johnstoun family. Ten per cent, was to be
the yearly interest, and the principal might be repaid in ten years.
The young merchant had already parted with the lands of Barboy, bought
by his father in 1594. 2 A deed of Nov. 7, 1605, confirms the sale, with the
1 In a process of 1801, Erskine stated that a mark was worth £1 sterling in 1708.
2 In 1664 Robert was returned heir to his father, John Johnstoun. He married Jean
Inglis, Aug. 2, 1661, and died s.p. 1684, leaving a brother, David, burgess of Cupar in Fife.
Possibly there is a connection between his heirs and the Johnstons of Lathrisk and Wedderby,
Co. Fife, and the Johnstons of Pitkeirie, Fife.