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

DEATH OF DR EDWARD JOHNSTONE 287
parentage,
adds
his philanthropy, and the death of Mrs Johnstone in 1823, it
:
" It is pleasant to think of the long extension of his useful life, which
continued till Sept. 4, 185 1, when he wanted but a few days of completing
his ninety-fourth year. The writer of this notice was at the Hall on the day of
his funeral. Never before, probably, had the old place seen so remarkable a
gathering of the notable men of Birmingham within its walls. . . . The
tolling bell of the quaint old Church intensified the solemnity which prevailed.
The grandeur of the park, solemn and still at all times, was, on that morning,
mellowed with the softness of waning summer. The sombre shadows 'neath
its majestic trees, the writer well remembers ; and he recollects that a solitary
artist patiently sat in front of his canvas, far away down the sloping lawn.
"The occasion was no common one in 1851. . . . Dr Johnstone was
followed to his grave in the ivy-covered church, near which he had so long
lived, by a large assemblage of his brethren, and the officers of the hospital he
had himself served in more than seventy years before. When we entered the
venerable porch and enquired of some of the ' ' elder brethren the early history
of the patriarch of medicine in this town, a strange awe pervaded the mind on
being informed that we were about to consign to the dust the remains of one
who had witnessed the first decade of the reign of George III., and admitted
the first patient into the wards of the General Hospital." 1
The last funeral that had taken place from the Hall was that of Mary,
sister to Dr Johnstone, in 1841, and seven years earlier that of his son, Charles.
His daughter inherited her mother's estate of Fulford Hall in Worcestershire
and Warwickshire. The Dunsley Manor estate, Co. Stafford, went to Edward,
and, failing direct heirs, was entailed by his father on James and his eldest son.
An estate in Worcestershire and lands, Co. Stafford, were left to James. The
elder brother, born April 9, 1804, graduated M.A. (Trinity College), was called
to the Bar in 1828, but never practised, being chiefly engaged in literary and
philanthropic pursuits. With the poet Campbell, Lord Dudley Stuart, Lord
Ilchester, and others he founded in 1832 the "Literary Association of the
Friends of Poland." It was non-political, but assisted many of the exiles
of the Polish Revolution to gain their livelihood, and even to obtain Government
posts. On his sister's death in i860 he inherited Fulford Hall, and in
1876 put in a claim to the dormant Marquisate of Annandale against that of
Sir Frederick Johnstone of Westerhall. Mr Hope Johnstone again advanced
his claim as direct heir in the female line, but it was dismissed on the ground
of the superior claim of the male heirs whatsoever, and the other cases in 1881
on the score of inconclusive evidence. Edward Johnstone died unmarried at
Worcester, Sept. 20, 1881. As his brother James predeceased him, Fulford
1 Modem Birmingham also gives an appreciative notice of Dr Edward Johnstone. Those
who look into the causes of longevity may be interested by the fact that he neither smoked
nor took snuff, and was a very temperate man. He died from a slight cold, but was otherwise
in perfect health. A notice in the local paper on his eightieth birthday spoke of the purity
of his life and conversation. He recollected hearing the bells rung for the Coronation of
George III.