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

THE JOHNSTOUNS OF KIRKTON AND WARRIESTON 129
he took a prominent part. Charles I. knighted him and made him a Lord
of Session in 1641, when he took the title of Lord Warrieston, and the Estates
voted him a grant of ,£3000, because he had "expended himself and his purse
in public duty." He gave ,£2400 to relieve the needs of the Scottish army in
Ireland in 1643. Carlyle calls him a "canny lynx-eyed lawyer and austere
Presbyterian zealot, full of fire, of heavy energy and gloom, in fact a very notable
character, of whom our Scotch friends would do well to give us further elucida-
tion." That his sisters, daughters, and sons-in-law firmly believed in him is
a great tribute to his sincerity.
Warrieston 's uncles — Samuel of Sheens and Joseph of Hilton — were
writers to the signet. Samuel gave 1800 marks to assist the army in Ireland.
He married Helen Morison, sister of Lord Prestongrange, and was buried at
Greyfriars in 1659. He sold his property in Dumfriesshire to the Laird. His
eldest son married Anna, daughter of Sir James Hamilton ; the second son,
William, married Janet, the only child of John, Laird of Wamfray. William
carried on the male line of Sheens, as only two daughters survived of his elder
brother James's fourteen children, Rachel and Henrietta, who married
brothers—Sir James and Sir William Johnstoun of Westerhall. The third
brother, Alexander, left one daughter, Rachel.
Joseph of Hilton married Sophia, daughter of Sir Patrick Hume. His
Will is dated 1638. His daughter, Sophia, married John Fairholm of Craigiehall,
and was the mother of the first Marchioness of Annandale. His son, Archibald,
died in 1671, under tragical circumstances. The Countess of Home entertained
some intimate friends at Hirsel, the seat of Lord Home, near Coldstream, he
being absent, and three of them—his brother (William Home), the Sheriff of
Berwick, and Hilton—stayed the night. They spent the evening at cards,
and Home, losing heavily, accused Hilton of unfairness, and Hilton answered
by hitting him in the face. They apparently made up the quarrel, but in
the night when Hilton was asleep Home entered his room and stabbed him
in nine places. There was presumably resistance, as the Sheriff, roused by the
scuffle, met Home just leaving his victim's room and received a serious wound.
Home escaped on Hilton's horse. Some years later Hilton's son, Patrick
(afterwards knighted and Lord Provost), was at a ball, when he was called into
the lobby to speak to a stranger. The visitor told him that he had just attended
the death-bed of his father's assassin, who had begged him to come and ask
the son's forgiveness. Something convinced Hilton that he was the murderer
himself, and he was about to stab him with his sword when Home vaulted
over the staircase and escaped.
Another of the Hilton family, Major Johnston, one of Sir Patrick's nine
sons, is described by Carlyle of Inveresk as being remarkable for his good looks,
and many duels, yet "one of the best natured men I ever met. George II.
had put a cross at his name on his behaving very insolently at one of the theatres
to a country gentleman, and afterwards wounding him in a duel. In George
III.'s time, John Home got the star taken off, and he was promoted. . . .
Hew Bannatine had been his travelling tutor when abroad."