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

3 i2 JOHNSTONS OF NEWTON
Helen, Gilbert, and Janet, and "the Laird of Elphinstone to be adviser to his
spouse and bairns." Peter was also father of Alison, married to John Noble of
Inveresk, and of William and Isabel, by a previous marriage to Janet Wood,
who died 1566. Janet Wood owed money to John, brother to the Laird of
Elphinstone, and to her daughter Alison and John Noble.
Edwaid Johnstoun in Cousland, married to Agnes Hunter, was brother to
Thomas the younger, and probably to Peter. He mentions three sons in his
Will, but only William, the eldest, by name. Thomas the elder, and younger,
and Alexander Johnstoun in Dalkeith are witnesses (1628).
There were more victims in South-East Scotland than in Dumfriesshire to
the witch scare which discredited the Reformation, and in 1609 Giles Johnstoun,
the widow of John Duncan of Musselburgh, was accused of witchcraft. She
eloquently defended herself, never having been so wicked, she declared, as to
have any dealings with the devil. It was seldom that such an assurance
was enough without torture to prove it, but Giles had some powerful influence
to help her, for the Privy Council relieved the ministers of Inveresk, Crichton,
Borthwick, Newbattle, Cranston, and Lasswade, before whom she was charged,
of any further responsibility and took it on themselves. A similar case of
interference occurred in 1629, when the Provost and Baillies of Dunbar had to
find caution for 500 marks to appear before the Privy Council and answer for
arresting William Johnstoun, James Williamson, and others in Dunbar as "idle
and masterless men."
The frolicsome youth of the period could make itself extremely objectionable
to the industrious citizen, and the action of the Provost may have been only
a precaution.
The descendants of George, the brother of Sir Adam Johnstoun of Elphinstone,
have never been traced, nor of any son that Sir Adam may have had
younger than Gilbert and Andrew. In the absence of proof elsewhere, they may
presumably have existed in the families of Johnstoun settled in and around
Elphinstone, who bore the same Christian names, and after the custom of the
day would have had the first claim to feu the estates. Some of the descendants of
the elder James of Elphinstone and his brothers, of John, the son of Robert of
Leuchie, of Gilbert and other sons of John Johnstoun of Carlaverock and Elizabeth
Haldin, have not been proved to be extinct, and possibly appear in David
and Patrick l Johnstoun in Preston in 1634; Patrick, a farmer in Elphinstone
in 1687 ; Robert of the same place in 1694 ; and James, who was returned heir
to Robert; and in the Johnstouns of Newton. James Johnstoun of Newton
Grange, in a deed registered March 9, 1634 and signed at Preston Pans, lent
.£83 Scots to John Baptie in Lufuresmure.
This James of Newton Grange was presumably related to David Johnstoun,
whose son John's name is recorded on the baptismal register at Newton in
1629. David's younger children were Agnes, Patrick, Margaret, James, and
x The name Patrick, so often found among the Elphinstone Johnstons and their connections,
came from Patrick of Dunbar, uncle to the first of this branch, who perished when his
sovereign, James I., was murdered.