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

3 o8 YOUNGER SONS OF ELPHINSTONE
Dr Preston—his most intimate friends—sat by turns with the dying man till he
expired."
Andrew Johnstoun of Elphinstone witnessed an agreement in 1561 between
James or John, for he is called both in the deed, the Abbot of Salsit, and
Margaret, the widow of Johnstoun of Wamfray, and her elder sons, James,
Gilbert, and William, in which the Abbot, moved, as he says, "by pity and
reuth for the said Margaret and for her bairns, was content to pay 100 marks
yearly for two years for support to hold them at schools where they may learn
knowledge and letters, and further, in remembrance of the good deeds and
thankfulness done to the said Abbot by the late James of Wamfray ; but if the
abbeys and ecclesiastical benefices decay by taking away the lands the said
Margaret and her children must pay back a portion of it." James Johnstoun of
Kellobank was the witness.
In 1553 representatives of the Peerage, Knighthood, and gentry of
Scotland were ordered to meet the English commissioners of equivalent rank
on the Borders to discuss the terms of peace. Andrew Johnstoun of Elphinstone
appears among the Knights. Two of his sons were named John, the one
who attended Knox's death-bed, and another a merchant, who was for some
time a Romanist, and had a son educated at Douai for the priesthood. His
eldest brother, James, was his cautioner for £1000 that he should have no
communication with traitors and exiles. His name appears several times in
public affairs in Edinburgh, where he joined with George Heriot, Arnot, and
others in trying to reform the Edinburgh Corporation, but those individuals
whom his party elected would not act. Another of Andrew's sons, Mr Adam
Johnstoun, a commissioner for Lothian and Provost of Crichton, declined to
subscribe to the Act of Pacification signed at Perth. He and eight other
ministers were ordered to appear before the King, who, report said, was " a
Papist," but however that might be, it was the King's policy just then to
conciliate his future Romanist subjects, who were still numerous in England,
and were issuing pamphlets accusing him of conniving at his mother's fate.
Three of the ministers obeyed the order and were convinced by the Royal
arguments. Adam was one of those put in ward for contumacy. In 1584 they
were ordered to leave Edinburgh, and not to print or circulate their views. Mr
David Chalmers was appointed Provost in Adam's place, and both carried on
lawsuits against the other. Adam was dead in 1607, when his widow, Bessie
Borthwick, and his son James are mentioned in John Johnstoun of Elphin-
stone's Will. As Clerk of the Privy Council this John had taken the oath of
secrecy in 1561.
The political intrigues in which the Johnstouns of Elphinstone were mixed
up were all to further the Protestant cause. In 1565 "Mr John Johnstoun,
writer, was respited for assisting the Earl of Moray in his treacherous dealings
in England and France," i.e., when Moray went to London and Paris to find a
Protestant husband for Queen Mary instead of Darnley. He was probably the
Elphinstone whom Moray sent from Paris to confer with Queen Elizabeth's
Ministers. The murder of Rizzio was in the same interest. James Johnstoun,