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

344
JOHNSTONS OF CASKIEBEN
Arthur, M.D., physician to James VI. and Charles I., who holds amongst the
Latin poets of Scotland the next place to Buchanan (see Sir W. D. Geddes'
Musa Latino. Aberdonensis, New Spalding Club, 2 vols., 1892 and 1895). He
was educated at the Burgh School at Kintore, and in 1608 went to Padua,
where he graduated M.D., and also to Rome, after which he settled in Sedan,
the seat of one of the six Protestant universities in France. He practised
medicine in Paris in 1619, but, returning to Scotland before the coronation of
Charles I., he was introduced to Archbishop Laud, who invited him to London.
There he published one edition of his Latin translation of the whole Psalter in
verse. He was married to a Frenchwoman, and, secondly, to a Gordon. He
died at Oxford, when visiting a married daughter, 1641, having had thirteen
children.
His next brother, William (M.D.), married Elizabeth Irving of Drum, and
was also the father of a large family. He was the first Professor of Mathematics
in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. His Latin verses
are about to be reproduced in the third volume of the Musa Latina Aberdonensis}
His eldest brother, John, married Janet, daughter of Turing, Laird
of Foveran ; he died 1614, and was succeeded by his son, George, created a
Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I. 2 George's son, George, sold Caskieben
in 1660 to Sir John Keith, who changed the name to Keith Hall, now the seat
of the Earls of Kintore. His son, John, third Baronet, was hanged at Tyburn
in 1690 for assisting in the abduction of Mary Wharton, an heiress, by his
friend, Captain the Hon. James Campbell. Being the only offender arrested,
he paid the penalty. The title went to his cousin, John, who bought Cordyce,
Co. Aberdeen, and changed its name to Caskieben. Sir John followed the
fortunes of Prince James in 171 5, and was present at the battle of SherifT-
muir, where his only son was killed by his side. The bereaved father, not
venturing to go home, retired to Edinburgh, where he died 1724. He married
Janet Mitchell.
The succession passed to the descendant of John (died 1614) by his second
wife, Katherine, daughter of William Lundie of that Ilk in Fife, the fifth
Baronet, William, being the son of John Johnston of Bishopstown and his wife,
Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of John Alexander, merchant, burgess of
Aberdeen. Sir William, who was an advocate, married Jean, daughter of
James Sandilands of Craibstone. He had two sons in the Navy—William,
his heir ; and Alexander, who perished, with his ship's crew, off the coast of
Scotland. As he sold the last remnant of the family estate, his son, William,
1 Another member of this family, John (whose ancestor was Gilbert, a grandson of Stiven),
was Professor of Divinity at St. Andrews in 1593. His great-grandfather, Alexander of
Crimond, was alive in 1540. When the Annandale Chief was outlawed for the battle of Dryfe
Sands John received a grant of a third of the benefices in Annandale from James VI. on
condition that he put "Godlie ministers in the parish Kirks." He does not seem to have
claimed his share from the old owners, and he died in 161 1. His wife, Katherine Melvill, and
their two children predeceased him. He was a poet and historian.
2 There is a payment in 1646 by Sir George Johnston to "James Douglas, Keeper of the
Tolbooth of Canongate, for 2586 marks Scots for meat and drink, chambermaill and borrowed
money, together with other necessaries, for my use the time of my incarceration."