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

182 GIDEON JOHNSTONE AND MRS JORDAN
Alexander, a lieutenant-colonel, died s.p. 1787. He is mentioned in this letter
from his eldest brother to their father :
" Dearest Sir,
"Brother Alexr. was quite recovered when the last ships came
away, but excessively chagrined at being left behind. A gentleman of his
acquaintance told me that he was more disordered in mind than body. All
the Knights of Nova Scotia have been applying for grants of the lands
mentioned in their patents on record in the Parlt. House, Edinr. If you
could get yourself served heir male to Johnston of Elphinstone I will get
you your grant, and without your being at one shillings expence will put at
least ;£iooo in your pocket, providing your 100,000 acres (one share) lies near
a navigable river ; at any rate it will do much more than pay the expence.
" George, I believe, will get a government. I am told I shall get rank.
I ever am, dearest sir, your most affectionate and dutiful son, Jas. Johnstone.
"March 1, 1763."
Captain Gideon Johnstone, another of WesterhalPs sons, married the celebrated
Mrs Jordan, when she was still a girl acting at Leeds, about 1779. He
was the only admirer who led her to the altar, and when, in her last lonely and
poverty-stricken days in France, she called herself Johnstone, it was the one
name to which she is believed to have had any legal claim. He had probably
met her first when she was acting in Dublin and Cork, but, as he died abroad,
she continued to act with the stage name of Jordan. She was the mother of
the Fitz Clarences and the ancestress of the Duke of Fife.
Of Sir James Johnstone's daughters, Barbara married Lord Kinnaird, and
Charlotte married James Balmain. Both left descendants. The adventures of
another daughter, Margaret, form an interesting chapter in Burke's Family
Romance. She was married to David, Lord Ogilvie, the eldest son of the Earl
of Airlie, and induced her husband to join the banner of Prince Charles in 1745
on the ground that, so long as his father remained at home, he perilled neither
rank nor property by heading the clan. She kept him up to the mark by
riding with them to Culloden, and took charge of a led-horse in case her
husband should want it during the battle. Towards the end of the day he
rode up to tell her all was lost, then mounted the fresh horse, and reached the
coast in time to catch a Norway fishing boat, by which he escaped through
Denmark to France, while his wife, stupefied with fatigue, anxiety, and disappointment,
was taken prisoner.
Several ladies shared Lady Ogilvie's prison in Edinburgh Castle, but were
all released while she was detained, because " so much mischief had been done
by women taking an active part in the Stewart cause, and persuading their
husbands to join when they would otherwise have stayed at home, that it was
necessary to make an example of the one who was foremost in rank and
influence." She was tried and condemned to be executed in Edinburgh in six
weeks ; but it seems probable, from the unusual length of time allowed, that a
remission was expected. She anticipated it by leaving the prison disguised in