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

THE JOHNSTOUNS OF ELPHINSTONE i S
Patrick, Barbara, Martha, and Mary. Samuel married Jean Douglas of Spott,
and, besides John, the second Baronet, left five daughters— Jean, Elizabeth
(who married, first, John Seton, and for her second
fell), Helen, Mary, and Anna.
husband the Earl of Hart-
Samuel was an enterprising man, who, in conjunction with the Primroses,
ancestors of the Earl of Rosebery, began to export the coal that his prede-
cessors had worked in East Lothian, a business which eventually ruined the
family. It was stopped by the Lords in Council for fear the supply should
become exhausted. Elphinstone represented the loss he was incurring, and
that, worked as he was doing it, the coal would last ioo years in spite of
exportation. On April 23, 1623, an Act of the Privy Council decreed that
" as Samuel Johnstoun of Elphinstone had already expended 20,000 marks upon
his coal heughs, to his great hurt and apparent wreck, in supporting forty
families of men, women, and children at their work, whose weekly charges
exceeded 200 marks," he was allowed to export coal for seven more years.
Miners were serfs by a law passed in 1606, but that he was a humane employer
is shown by the average weekly gain of a collier's family being 5 marks,
or 5s. 6d.
Elphinstone obtained a permit to visit England and the Continent in
1635. He died Feb. 18, 1637, leaving his only son and heir, John, his sole
executor, his house at Elphinstone and his residuary legatee. To his unmarried
daughter, Mariot, two parts of his goods ; and to his youngest daughter, Anna,
a third of all his goods and gear, apprised at £959, 6s. 8d., but he was owed
£516, 12s. He also owed an arrear of teind duty of the lands of Elphinstone
to James Johnstoun, Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, wages to one maid and four
menservants, besides sums to three more, probably tradespeople or workmen.
His brother, Patrick, left neither wife nor child, and his debts exceeded his
assets. Sir David Home of Wedderburn and his son, George, were in his debt.
Sir John married Margaret Keith, and died in 1662. There is a dis-
crepancy between his Will and the retour of the next heir, as the first distinctly
states that Margaret, Jean, Elizabeth, and Anna, his daughters, were the only
nearest of kin to him, " David Sinclair of Rysie being spouse to the said
Elizabeth." Like his uncle, Patrick, he died in difficulties, as the inventory
is only sworn at £180, and he left debts. John M'Cara, son to the Commissary
Clerk at Inverness, is cautioner, and John Lightfoot, Writer in Edinburgh, his
only executor. Elphinstone Tower appears to have been already alienated.
But on May 5, 1666, " Dominus Jacobus Jonstoun de Elphinstoun miles
baronettus" is returned as heir to his father, John, " militis baronnetti," and
to his grandfather, Sir Samuel. On June 2, 1673, he was returned heir to
his father in the lands of Leuchie. It may be assumed that James was not a
lawful heir, but perhaps, as a suit was being carried on against Sir John's
daughters, it was worth no one's while to prove it. He was buried, it is believed,
in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh, where four boundary stones, erected in
1727, with just the name, marked the grave.
Things seem to have gone on prosperously with the Elphinstones till