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

4
THE EARLIEST JOHNESTOUNS
evidently the same man, had a tower and retainers. These, with Adam Corrie 1
and his men, reinforced Wallace on a subsequent occasion at Lochar Moss,
when his own horses and followers were exhausted, "good Currie" providing
the Chief with a fresh mount, so that they were able to chase Maxwell out of
Carlaverock, put up there for the night, and the next morning ride on merrily
to Dumfries.
It is a long step from the aristocracy of Europe—the progenitors of its
kings— to plain John, a Keltic peasant without a surname, whom a modern author
prefers to have been the founder of the family. Yet the first mention of the
Tower of Johnstoun in a Charter is to be found in the Laird James's retour to
his father's lands, which included Cavertholme and Dunskellie, near Graitney,
in 15 1 3. This was more than 230 years after Johnstouns had signed their
names to Charters granted by the Bruces, and more than 200 years after the
Chief in Eskdale had assisted Wallace. Sir W. Fraser thinks that the first
Johnstoun "must have been a person of considerable importance" (1170-94).
If so, he probably had a surname when he "obtained lands in the heart of
Bruce's great lordship," for all but peasants had surnames. Even the Norman
foot soldier was called after the town whence he came.
Anyway, at a time that the Norman nobility were more civilised than the
natives, and when French and Latin was the speech of educated men, the
Johnstouns held their own, and from the term " gentle " applied to them later on
were accredited with long descent. Yet they owned very little in Annandale,
and that little was scattered, compared to Carlile, Corrie, Carruthers, Charteris,
and Crichton before the middle of the fifteenth century, and the name of
Johnstoun on the old rent rolls and title-deeds is less common about Lochwood
and the parish of Johnstone than farther south. Lands called Joinville are
early found in Eskdale and Annandale.
The author of the Bruces and Cummings says that the Johnstouns intermarried
with the Bruces, and in that way obtained lands in Annandale, but it
is a question if they did not precede the first Bruce.
Gilbert, the son of Thomas de Jonestoune (probably the Thomas who
signed the Ragman's Roll), had a grant of Redmyre and Whitriggs in Kin-
cardine from David II., lands which later belonged to Irving of Drum. In
1334 a Charter of lands in Annandale from Edward Baliol, Rex, to Henry Percy
is signed by Gilbert de Johnstoune of Brakenthwaite, an estate owned later by
the Carliles, who at this very time possessed Lochwood, or Loughwood, the
chief Johnstoun stronghold in the sixteenth century. A grant from Thomas
Randolph, Earl of Moray (d. 1322), of Ruthwell and Comlongan to his nephew,
William Murray, is signed by John de Johnestoune and his son, Gilbert, and in
1347 Gilbert de Johnestoune is cited by the English king, who owned Annandale
while David II. was a prisoner in England, to preside over the jury which
declared Carlile to be his uncle's heir.
John, the son of Gilbert, was Warden of the Borders, and knighted by
1 The Corries held the Barony of Corrie, which included Newbie at that time. The
Hallidays owned Hoddam and other estates in Dumfriesshire under the Bruces.