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

THE CIVIL WAR 141
The last Charter in which John of Mylnfield was concerned was in 1659.
It is signed Hartfell, being a sale of land by his Chief, James, Earl of Hartfell,
Lord Johnstoun of Lochwood, Moffatdaill, and Evandaill, to William M'Neish,
who was married to a Carlile. John acted as sole witness. This owner of
the above titles was the son of the first Earl, who had been very uncertain how
to act when it became obvious that Charles I. would never accept the demands
of the Covenanters. Johnstoun at first led a Covenanting band to besiege
Caerlaverock, where the King was expected ; and from Warrieston's letters J to
him (1639) it appears that he had signed the Covenant, like most of the nobility
and gentry. Lord Traquair undertook to bring him round, and succeeded,
for he eventually marched with Montrose, Nithsdale, Murray (Earl of Annan-
dale), and Charteris at the head of English troops to Dumfries. As the
Provost v/as a Royalist they hoisted the Royal Standard in place of the Blue
Banner of the Covenant. Both Johnstoun and Murray, who had also signed the
Covenant, had expected that this would be the signal for a general rising
in favour of the King in all Dumfriesshire, but it never came. Montrose
thought the two were false, but in every village there were Covenanters ready
to denounce a Royalist neighbour ; and the younger men were not practised
in the use of arms as before the Union of the Crowns, yet the remembrance
of those days of fire and slaughter possibly acted as a deterrent, and the
Borderers would not ruin themselves to fight on the side of the English against
the Scots. Montrose withdrew to Carlisle, but Johnstoun, later, joined him
with some of his own name and his tenants, and they gained a few small
victories over the Covenanters. These were followed by a signal defeat at
Philiphaugh, when several of the descendants of the House of Newbie, who
accompanied their Chief, were left dead on the field ; others of their name at
once quitted Edinburgh for America, fearing the triumph of their enemies.
The regiment of Dumfries, in which a few more Johnstouns were enrolled,
1 From Warrieston.
" If you take this oath (to the King) you renounce the covenant with God, you
draw down His vengeance verily upon you, your house and your name, good fame, yourself and
your posterity, with that stigmatising blot and blunder of a traitor to your religion, the Kirk,
the liberty and freedom of this kingdom you will be infamous in all stories and contemned
;
both at home and abroad, whereof I am very confident you abhor the very thought worse
than death. Mistake not my forewarning you of these consequences, as if I believed your
Lordship would fall on them, for I protest I am not capable as yet of such an imagination ;
but you know my licence and liberty to be free in this business with all I love and respect."
Montrose, it seems, had been invited to Court at this time and declined, and Johnstoun
is exhorted "
to follow his example and "do nobly as my noble Lord of Montrose has done !
The letter resumes :
"This is my advice; but if your Lordship will go away, truly I shall be sorry for it ;
but I will both expect from your Lordship an answer hereunto more clear and special,
whereby I may be more enabled to falsify my doubts, and answer the objections made
by others against your voyage (to the Court) like as a true-hearted Johnstoun, and a true
friend and servant to your Lordship and to the house of Johnstoun, and, above all, as a
faithful advocate for God's Kirk, and agent for this great work of God in this land. I do
faithfully counsel you and really forewarn you, as in the presence of the great God, before
whom your Lordship and I will both answer, that as you love your own soul, your name, your
state, your country and religion, you neither byword, or writ, undertake either to assist the
King in this his course against your fellow-Covenanters, which by your solemn oath you are
obliged to maintain."