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

EXECUTION OF MAXWELL 115
elsewhere he is styled Mr (Master) John Johnstoun, after the fashion which
gave the prefix to graduates and the eldest sons of Lairds.
The career of this John of Mylnfield was a short one. He was Sheriff-
Depute 1 of Annandale, and presided over the jury who returned James, the
young Laird of Johnstoun, as lawful heir to his father in 1609, ar| d for a short
time had the ward of the estate. He was also Sheriff or Steward of Dumfries.
In 1605 he paid 10 marks for the release of his uncle, Abraham Johnstoun,
from a sentence of outlawry Lady Newbie had procured against him—first
for fishing, and then for keeping from her, as she alleged, some of the Newbie
rents (claimed by heirs and creditors)—and after John had taken his uncle's side
at the trial for the attack on Newbie his life was not safe from the Maxwells.
On July 31, 1605, Edward Maxwell of Hills and Lord Hereis had to pledge
themselves for ,£5000, and Robert Maxwell of Dinwiddie pledged himself
for the Maxwells of Gribton and Conheath with 3000 marks, not to harm
Mr John Johnstoun, advocate. When their Chief was a fugitive they, in their
turn, asked to be protected against the Johnstouns.
The same year John was pledge for his Wamfray cousin, Edward Johnstoun,
in Edinburgh, who was accused of attacking John Broun, a goldsmith, in
the High Street. It was proved that Edward and his wife, Katherine Rae,
had supper with her parents, and were returning with their servants to their own
lodging when the plaintiff, with an Aberdeen friend, seized Katherine, "tore
her curtche and other ornaments of her head causing her nose to bleed."
The husband was exonerated for inflicting severe blows on the probably
drunken assailants, the Court decreeing that "the High Street at night should
be a place of safety and refuge to all honest men and women, especially
to the honest neighbours and inhabitants thereof." The Laird of Johnstoun,
Ryehill, and Westraw were advocates or witnesses for the defence.
In 1610 John was among the Justices of the Peace for Dumfriesshire and
Annandale, the other Johnstouns on the list being Raecleuch, Ryehill, and
Graitney. The representatives of eleven of their colleagues—Douglas, Charteris,
Stewart, Murray, Wemyss, etc.—have long since merged into the Peerage where
they were not already Peers, except Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, who is a Baronet.
The twelfth—Carruthers of Holmains—has no heir in the direct male line.
The deed which transferred Galabank from Jeffrey Irving to Edward
of Ryehill is dated at Mylnfield. John Johnstoun of Mylnfield was a witness,
and living at Galabank and also occupying Northfield and the adjacent fields in
1609 when he brought an action against some inhabitants of Annan who
interfered with his fishings. The next year he was outlawed for not arresting
Robert of Raecleuch in Newbie Castle, at the instance of the powerful Murray,
when the Crown bestowed the property as an escheat on Mr Patrick Howat.
The five years' exile of Lord Maxwell for the murder of the Laird
of Johnstoun in 1608, and his execution in 1613, eclipsed the influence of his
family very temporarily, for they were widely represented in Dumfriesshire and
1 This post, like that of Sheriff, Baillie, and Provost, was, says Speed, always kept in the
Lairds' families.