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

DEATH OF GALABANK 225
sake of your family, and I wish your spouse and children a happy New Year
and many of them. This is all, from your affectionate father and mother.
" John Johnstone.
" I can get no interest from Mr Corrie Carlile paid. When you write
to me be so good as to write to him and ask for regular payment. We have
had a cold hard winter."
The old man survived till the next October, when he had a slight stroke
which affected one arm. He said at once that it was the forerunner of death,
and that he would neither see a doctor nor take any remedy. " Did they wish
him to live to be 100 years old and a burden to everybody?" was his answer
when his wife and daughter urged him to give himself a chance. His son
did not arrive till the end had already come, Oct. 14, and it gratified him to see
the respect in which his father was held by all the neighbourhood. "His word
was as good as another's bond," and " Scotland never bred a more honest man,"
were common observations, and repeated in the funeral sermon by the Rev,
VV. Moncrieff. 1 He was in his eighty-seventh year, and the oldest freeholder
in Scotland.
His Will was dated May 18, 1769. He left no debts, but £214, 3s. 4d. was
owed to him by Mr William Corrie Carlile of Bridekirk. Except a small
charge on his property for his son, John, and some special furniture to his
daughter, Isobelle, besides an elbow chair, and six chairs, and a rococo bookcase
to his grand-daughter, Mrs Lockhart, and a large silver spoon and silver
tankard to his grandson, Edward, he left all else— " lands, crops, stock and
utensils of husbandry, furniture, window curtains, pictures, prints, looking-
glasses, beds, tables and chairs "—to his daughter, Isobelle, and his son, James.
The Will, signed by himself and his wife, was witnessed by George Hardie,
Provost of Annan, John Bushby, writer in Dumfries, and John Anderson,
notary. 2
His son speaks very warmly of him in his diary, and expresses thank-
fulness that he did not live to see the unfortunate end of his grand-daughter's
marriage with General Lockhart, which was solemnised in his house after the
Presbyterian fashion, which had crept in since he was married himself. No change
was made in the establishment while the widow lived, but on June 18, 1776, her
son records: "This morning died my dear affectionate mother, Anna, in the
8 1st year of her age." " My active feeling mother "—as he calls her elsewhere.
" She was eight years younger than her husband. In the last year of her
1 Only three ministers have succeeded him in Annan to the present day— his son, the
Rev. J. Monilaws, and Dr Crichton.
2 His monument in Annan Churchyard bears the inscription below the names of the
children who had predeceased him. " Here also is interred the venerable father of this
numerous family John Johnstone Esq. of Gallabanks, representative of the Johnstones of
Milnfield and Newbie Castle, and an antient cadet of the Johnstones of Johnstone. He
died the 12th day of October 1774 aged 86 years and 4 months.
"The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.
"Also Anna Ralston his relict who died the 18th of June 1776, and in the 81st year of
her age.
"All flesh is grass."
Q