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

n6 MURRAY'S CLAIM
had intermarried with the Murrays, who were trying, in addition to the titledeeds
of the Dundrennan Abbey, to get a reversion of the escheat of the
Earl of March in 1440. The old Charter granted to their ancestor in 1320
covered ground previously granted to Carlile ; but John and James Murray
based an extra claim on the retour obtained when Maxwell was Warden for
their ancestor in 1494, and again in 1507, in which Rampatrick, including
Graitney, Dornock, and Kirkpatrick Fleming, as well as Ruthwell, were stated
as having belonged to his father. Galabank was also claimed for Dundrennan.
Both the Murrays were Commissioners for the settlement of the Borders, and so
was Sir James Douglas of Torthorald, whose mother, the heir of the Carliles,
had been compelled to marry her cruel husband by the Regent Angus.
Douglas claimed the old Carlile property, "from Wamfray to Griestna grene,"
and it was the object of all three to get rid of their fellow Commissioner,
Edward of Ryehill. He was put to the horn, with his wife and children, for
not obeying the summons in " Murray contra Johnstoun " (1609), when Robert
Johnstoun of Raecleuch, tutor of Johnstoun, Edward Johnstoun (of Ryehill),
called of Newbie, Christine Irving there, John Johnstoun in Mylnfield there,
Robert Fareis, John Gibson, the ploughman, Abraham Johnstoun, his sons, and
many others were called upon to quit Newbie.
In May i6ro John M'Briar, servitor to Maxwell of Gribton in 1605, sued
the above defendants for the tithes, but instead of John Johnstoun in Mylnfield,
whose name is scratched out, John the younger appears. In another summons
the following year Christine Irving's name also disappears, and Ryehill and
Christopher Johnstoun were living at "the vast stone house in Annan." When
Ryehill married Barbara Ud ward in 16 14 he moved to his wife's house inCastlemilk.
Barbara's father, Nicol Udward, was an intimate friend of George Heriot,
the famous jeweller to the King and Queen. Heriot came of a Dumfriesshire
family, and his friend and executor, Robert Johnstoun, is stated, on his
monument, to belong to the House of Newbie, in Annandale.
When John of Mylnfield was outlawed by Murray for not arresting Robert
of Raecleuch and the other Johnstoun occupants of South Annandale, including
himself, his cousin, John Carruthers of Holmains, was made Sheriff-Depute
of Annandale in his place, and a Maxwell stepped into his post as Sheriff
of Dumfries. In 161 1 Carruthers was displaced for the same reason, and
Mr John Johnstoun of Castlemilk appointed. He found it equally difficult
to arrest the lords of the soil, and applied to the Privy Council for advice.
Holmains, being no longer Sheriff-Depute, refused to pay his taxes, and
Raecleuch and other lairds claimed that as Holmains was no longer Sheriff
they need not pay the taxes he had demanded. Castlemilk was ordered
to act with severity, and to pursue and arrest one Bell who had escaped from
prison at Dumfries. In the midst of his difficulties he was drowned. The
eldest son, Thomas, was not long of age when, " with the consent of Ryehill, his
father-in-law" (i.e., stepfather), he sold his lands of Flemingraw 1 and others
1 So the deeds seem to show, but his nephew, Nathaniel Johnston, says of him : " My
grandmother's brother gave my oldest uncle such an education in France, &c, and encouraged