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

i 9 8 GALABANK'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY
in good health ; but your brother's weakness returned upon him three weeks
ago. Let us hear frequently and write 'by way of Kendal and Chester.' I hope
when your son comes here this country air and the colder climate will agree
with him. We are all greatly pleased with the name of Edward. Your mother
anticipated it. I hope he will prosper the better, and that God will preserve
him in his young and tender years. Your affecte father, John Johnstone,
Nov. 2, 1757."
On Oct. 29, 1759, Edward wrote from Annan about their mother, whom
James had prescribed for during a temporary illness, and adds: "With regard
to I could not with any countenance speak of him to the friends whose
interest he had in a manner cast at his feet—but I have tried another interest
and am promised that as soon as Parliament sits down a member shall be
warmly applied to for a commission. Meantime if by your English interest you
can do anything, if a commission can be got, I'll consent in that case to your
drawing on the family to the extent of ,£50 sterling. I waited at Moffat many
weeks hoping to have seen my Lord Lyttelton. He did not pass Moffat at the
time of my being there. One night in this town an equipage with six horses
drew my attention. It was the Scots Earl of Glenorchy. Lord Hopetoun told
me he should either see Lord Lyttelton at Buxton where his Lp was to drink
the waters or Lord Lyttelton would come to Hopetoun house. I expect to see
Hopetoun in a few days and then I shall know if his Lp was at Hopetoun
House or not. . . . The report at this moment is that Monsieur Thurot
with a squadron of 6 or 7 ships of the line with transports containing several
thousand men has sailed to the north of Scotland and that an English Admiral
is in pursuit. 1 A little time will discover this, but the gallantry of the Scots
will not suffer them to come to your distance. We should have done better had
we been put on equal terms, and permitted a national militia." The political
allusions in these letters are all in cypher, Latin, or French.
The person vaguely alluded to seems to be Adam, Galabank's fifth son.
He was started as a partner in Manchester with a "considerable merchant,"
recommended by a Scottish relative ; but was robbed by highwaymen just
outside Manchester of a fairly large sum of money, and a little later his partner
absconded, leaving joint liabilities which had to be defrayed by Adam's share of
the assets. He set off to London where he hoped to hear of his partner,
but did not keep his family informed of his address, and for some weeks they
did not know it. During this time Captain James Johnstone, the heir of
Westerhall, kindly wrote to his brother, Gideon, a lieutenant in the Navy,
who was staying in Park St., Grosvenor Square :
1 The fleet was defeated at Carrickfergus, Feb. 28, 1759, by Captains Clements and Logic
Thurot was really O'Farrell, a Jacobite agent. Lord Lyttelton arrived at Raehills with
his son, Tom, and it is amusing to read the opinion of this young Etonian of fifteen, formed
from the Scots he met (including several Johnstones) at Moffat, Edinburgh, and Inverary
Castle. "Their virtues," he wrote to Mrs Montagu, "are courage, prudence, economy,
and hospitality, the last universally practised. Good breeding the Scots all possess, and there
is not in the north such a character as the English country squire, whose whole life is spent in
the laudable customs of hunting, swearing, drinking, and sleeping. Scotch ladies are very
handsome and very sweet tempered, etc."