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

286 DEATH OF DR JOHN JOHNSTONE
and aunts, young and old, the John Johnstones, the Lockhart Johnstones from
Worcester, and many other relatives. Dr John Johnstone's two daughters had
both been married at Edgbaston Church from their uncle's house—the elder,
Anna Delicia, to the Rev. Walter Farquhar Hook, afterwards Vicar of Leeds
x and Dean of Chichester and the younger, Agnes Mary, to the Rev. Henry
;
Clarke, 2 Rector of Northfield and Cofton Hacket, parishes which, at that time,
extended from the Lickey to Edgbaston Park.
That the eldest grandson should be called James, after his elder brother,
the family hero, had long been settled by the grandfather, who lived to recognise
the early promise of the future representative of his house. It was enough
to bring Johnstone of Worcester out of his grave if he could have known that,
after all his anxiety lest his own father should divide Galabank or leave it
away from the direct male heir, it was to pass out of the Johnstone family
to a female branch, which would probably value its own distinguished English
name and its long English descent 3 more than its Scottish ancestry. The
younger of John Johnstone's daughters, Agnes Mary Clarke, inherited the
Scottish estate. She died at Malvern, aged ninety-one, in 1905, when, as she
left no children, Galabank passed to Mrs Hook (n/e Acland-Troyte), the widow
of the Rev. Prebendary Walter Hook, Rector of Porlock, second son of the
Very Rev. Walter Farquhar Hook, Dean of Chichester, and Anna Delicia
Johnstone, his wife.
John Johnstone of Galabank predeceased his brother, Edward, Dec. 28,
1836. He was an active magistrate for Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and
among his most intimate friends were Sir Henry Halford, M.D., Dr Maltby
(the Bishop of Durham), the Rev. Dr Parr,* Dr Routh (the President of
Magdalen College), and Bishop Butler of Lichfield. He gave the Harveian
Lecture (in Latin) before the Royal College of Physicians in 1819; and
Bishop Butler regarded him as " a scholar among scholars," and wrote of
" the extraordinary ascendancy he gained over the minds of his friends. In
private society he was lively and agreeable, instructing it by his talents,
animating it by his cheerfulness, and refining it by his taste." His wife
survived him thirty-two years. They were both buried in the chancel of
Northfield Church.
The following is from an article on Edgbaston Hall in Feb. 1884 in
Edgbastoniana, a local magazine. After describing Dr Edward Johnstone's
1 See his Life, by his son-in-law, the late Dean of Winchester.
3 Fifth son of Major-General Sir William Clarke, Governor of Seringapatam, who died
there, 1808.
3 Acland of Columb-John, Co. Devon (s*e Burke's Baronetage).
4 In Langford's Modern Birmingham appears : "The year 1837 opens with the record of
the death of a very able and useful gentleman, Dr John Johnstone. ... He practised as a
physician in this town upwards of forty years, and among the members of his profession he
must be placed in the first rank. With deep learning he possessed an acuteness of intellect,
an insight into character, a decision of mind, and a kindness of manner eminently valuable in
every relation of life, but more peculiarly important in that of a physician. The confidential
friend and biographer of Dr Parr was himself a scholar of no ordinary acquirements, and his
biography of that celebrated man displays sound judgment, refined taste, and classical
learning."