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

JAMES JOHNSTONE DIES IN LONDON 159
uncle's deceased son, to avert any more legal suits. On Oct. 30 James
Johnstone wrote in a letter, beginning Dear Brother, and addressed " for John
Johnstone of Galabank in Annan, Dumfries Bagge, North Britain," that he had
made, with some expenditure, an end of the whole affair, and obtained a receipt
from Mrs Orr, and also an order to her lawyer to deliver up to John all the
family papers she had received as a security, and the legal papers connected
with the suit. James wrote again, Nov. 2, when he was leaving London
for Chippenham.
At the Court of Annan, Sept. 29, 1714, held by John Johnstone and John
Irving on the accession of King George I., the following, after taking the oaths
to the Elector of Hanover, were re-elected magistrates for the coming year
James, Lord Johnstone (eldest son of the Marquis) ; Sir William Johnstone of
Westerhall, eldest baillie ;
John Irving and John Johnstone, second and third
baillies ; William Irving, treasurer ; John Halliday, dean. John's first child,
baptised Isobelle, was born the previous day ; his eldest son, Edward, on
Aug. 27, 1716. These were followed by Mary, June 28, 1718; William, June
27, 1720; John, May 19, 1722; Janet, June 20, 1724; Anna, May 2, 1726;
Isobelle, Oct. 26, 1727 ; James, April 3, 1730 ; Adam, Feb. 27, 1732 ; Elizabeth,
March 11, 1733 ; Agnes, July 28, 1735 George, ; Sept. 16, 1738 ; Richard, Feb.
21, 1740. 1 The rate of infant mortality was very high in those days, and the
first little Isobelle, Mary, Janet, and Anna only gladdened their parents for
eight, six, and four years, and the last for six months, when they were trans-
ferred to the churchyard and laid by the side of their ancestors. The stone
covering them bears a quaintly worded inscription to their memory, and below
their names that of their uncle James, " merchant in England, brother to ye
forsaid Gallabanks, who dyed at ye Bleu Ancer in Little Britain, July 23, 1729,
age 36. His corps is interred in ye churchyeard of St. Botolph, Aldergate,
London."
Little Britain was the part of London where Scotsmen collected at that
time. He owned a house in Annan, which he left to his brother, but debts of
.£340 English, which his brother paid. His funeral expenses were £\J, 4s. 6d.,
exclusive of the luncheon at the Blue Anchor, which occupied the site of the
modern Castle and Falcon, close to St. Martin's-le-Grand. The funeral bill,
paid to William Johnston of Beirholme, then a citizen of London, includes the
hire of fourteen silver sconces and satin favours, and fourteen men with wax
lights, and two men with flambeaux to light the door. There were sixteen
mourners.
In the midst of Galabank's troubles with lawsuits there was an agitation
throughout Dumfriesshire in 1714,—the landing of Prince James Stewart being
expected. He came the next year. It was not a good time to find armed
followers among so poor a population ; but the head of the Maxwell clan, the
Earl of Nithsdale, led the Jacobites, thereby losing his title, and the Marquis of
Annandale collected the Militia on behalf of George I. As he was Provost of
1 Eight of these bore the same names as eight of the eleven children of the second Earl
of Annandale.