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

SIR WILLIAM PULTENEY 177
and wounded. The rest were taken prisoners, while the Fencibles lost two
killed and one wounded, besides Captain J. Mansfield. A court-martial on
the survivors, many of them badly wounded, condemned them all to be shot,
and they were already drawn up for execution when a pardon from the King
was announced, as two of them had been distinguished under the Duke of
Cumberland in 1746. One fainted away, and the weak, shattered condition
of all is described as exciting so much sympathy that it would not have been
safe to carry out the sentence.
From some lines in an epistle to Robert Graham, only found in one edition
of the Poet's works, it appears that Sir James assisted Burns in his pecuniary
difficulties :
" What Whig but melts for good Sir James,
Dear to his country by the names,
Friend, patron, benefactor.
Not Pulteney's wealth can Pulteney save
And Hopeton falls, the generous brave,
And Stewart bold as Hector."
William, Westerhall's third son, was educated for the Scottish Bar, and
entered it in 1751. In 1762 he was appointed Secretary to the Poker Club
in Edinburgh, but he removed to London, when he married the heiress of
the first Earl of Bath, whose large fortune obliged him to take her name,
Pulteney. That the fourth son, George, born 1730, a man of strong character,
a bold and noted duellist, was early sent into the merchant service is not
surprising—whipping having been almost abolished as a punishment for youth
in Dumfriesshire since the tragical death of his connection, young Douglas
but it was not unusual to let a boy learn seamanship on a merchant vessel,
the only training he had before qualifying with a very slight examination for a
commission in the Navy. When George Johnstone passed for lieutenant,
Feb. 2, 1749-50, he was described as apparently twenty-one, as having served six
years at sea, part of the time in the merchant service, and the rest in eleven
different ships under different captains. Yet he had distinguished himself
notably in the Canterbury, under Captain David Brodie, at the attack on Port
Louis, March 8, 1747-48, when he boarded a fireship and made fast a chain by
which she was towed off clear of the squadron. He was also in the Lark,
with Captain John Crookshanks, on her meeting with the Glorioso on July 14,
1747, and on leaving her is said to have challenged, fought, and wounded
Crookshanks, who had refused to give him a certificate. In Oct. 1755 he
became a lieutenant, and was appointed to the Sutherland, from which he was
moved the next year to the Bideford, on the West Indian Station. While
in her he is said to have killed the Captain's clerk in a duel. On Feb. 22, 1757,
he was tried by court-martial for insubordination and disobedience, but was
only reprimanded in consideration of former gallant behaviour; and was advanced
to post rank in 1762. He injured his foot and ankle at Chatham while waiting
for the arrival of the Hind, to which he had been appointed, and kept his bed
twelve weeks, so was superseded and placed on half pay.
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