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

32° JOHNSTONS OF CARNSALLOCH
to Europe with his parents to study law at Gottingen. He was called to the
Bar, and went on circuit till he was unexpectedly introduced to Fox, who
obtained for him the Advocate-Generalship of Ceylon, which had just been
annexed. In 1805 he was made Chief Justice, with a very acceptable rise in
salary, as he had married the daughter of Lord William Campbell, son of John,
fourth Duke of Argyll. He was recalled to advise the British Government in
181 1 on certain points to be embodied in the new Charter to the H.E.I.C.S.,
and was knighted by the Prince Regent before returning to Ceylon as President
of the Legislative Council. He advocated trial by jury, popular education, and
the employment of the natives, with due respect to the religion and customs
of Buddhists, Brahmins, and Mahometans. When he returned to England in
1849 Earl Grey declared, in the House of Lords, that his conduct in Ceylon
alone had immortalised his name.
Sir Alexander Johnston inherited Carnsalloch on the death of his mother
in 1849, but he represented the Dumfries Burghs in the Liberal interest shortly
after the death of his brother, who died in 1837. He was made a Privy Councillor,
and chiefly by his advice the judicial committee of the Privy Council
was established as a Court of Appeal in Colonial litigation. He was appointed
a member of that Court, but declined to take the salary attached to it, as he
had already declined to accept the salary when acting as an Admiralty judge.
His services were acknowledged in a petition to the House of Commons by
the leaders of native society in Bengal,—for he always supported the rights of
the natives. He was influential in founding the Royal Asiatic Society, of
which he became Vice-President, and was examined at some length before a
Committee of the House of Commons with regard to the natives of India in
1832. He died in London, March 1849, and was buried at Carnsalloch. He
left four sons and three daughters.
The eldest son, General Thomas Henry Johnston, Colonel of The Berkshire
Regiment, D.L and J. P., born 1807, succeeded his mother in 1852 and died
1 891, when his brother, Patrick Francis Campbell, inherited the estate. He
was a Commissioner of Charities in England, and also sent on a special mission
to Portugal, born 181 1, died 1892, having survived his younger brother, Alexander
Robert Campbell Johnston, who was born at Colombo, Ceylon, entered
the Colonial Civil Service, and went to Mauritius in 1828. In the absence
of the appointed Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, Mr Johnston was Acting
Governor at Hong-Kong (June 1 841), when the British flag was first hoisted,
until the close of 1842. His conduct was highly commended in despatches,
and he was made an F.R.S. for his contributions to the natural history of China.
He retired from the Colonial Service in 1852, and became a J. P. for Suffolk,
where he lived at the Grove, Yoxford. He died on the Raphael Ranche,
Los Angelos, California, Jan. 21, 1888, having married, 1856, Frances Helen,
daughter of Richard Bury Pelham, and left seven sons and two daughters.
The eldest son, Captain Archibald Francis Campbell Johnston, now of
Carnsalloch and Dornal, succeeded his uncle, Patrick, in 1892. He married,
1884, Edith Constance, daughter of the late Captain Shaw, R.N., Lieutenant-