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

22 THE JOHNSTOUNS OF WESTRAW
His sister had been given an escheat by the Crown, so had a little of her own,
and he was borrowing large sums from his relatives, the Edinburgh merchants.
Margaret died before June 6, 1599, as at that date Westraw's wife was
Eufemia Oliphant, daughter to his neighbour in Lanark. The Annandale
Book states that Margaret left children, but Westraw's heir was the son of the
second wife.
In 1502 the Laird Adam of Johnstoun tried to obtain the lands of Glendining,
in Eskdale, which his family had once owned, by force. Westraw bought
this estate in 1605 and came to live there, apparently to escape the enmity of
the Maxwells and their friends. His lands in Lanark had been escheated and
given to Carmichael. In his petition about Moit in 1584 he stated that he was
" cruelly left for dead in the county of Annandale " by certain of the Carliles,
servants and dependers of Maxwell ; and in 1607 he petitioned the Privy
Council to protect him from Lord Herries, Edward Maxwell, his brother, John,
Lord Maxwell, Sir Robert his brother, and others of less note.
The events which caused this enmity appear further on. The Maxwells
had to find cautioners for over ^2000, but the next year Dunskellie, as he was
then called, or the Chief of Johnstoun, fell a victim to the hereditary feud, and
Maxwell had to hide himself in the most remote part of the country, till he was
brought to justice in 161 3.
The purchase of Glendining, and also of Carlile's portion of Pettinane
(1601), partly with money borrowed from Gilbert Johnstoun in Edinburgh,
brought Westraw into difficulties. Robert Scott, reader at Thankerton Kirk,
proceeded against him in 1619, when he was still "at the horn," for a previous
debt of 3000 marks, for which Gilbert Johnstoun of Corhead was cautioner, and
to pay it he sold his paternal estate. The writ, in which " James Johnstoun of
Westraw, superior of the lands," makes over four oxgates of land in Pettinane
parish to Mr John Lindsay, is dated Edinburgh, Nov. 26, 1624, and
witnessed by James Johnstoun of that Ilk, Edward Johnestoun of Ryell
(Newbie), John Johnstoun, Writer, and Mr James Hamilton of Lesmahago.
A second writ is "in favour of James Carmichael, sewar to Prince Charles of
Scotland and Wales, of the 20 mark land of Pettinane, sometime belonging to
Elizabeth, Lady Carlile ; also the lands of Pettinane, now called Westraw,
sometime pertaining to Alexander, Master of Elphinstone, and assignation by
James Johnstoun, elder of Westraw." A ferry boat on the Clyde is included.
On June 5, 1629, there is an action by James Johnestoun of that Ilk, heir
to the late Sir James Johnestoun, against James Johnestoun, sometime of
Westraw, for production of a decreet dated Feb. 9, 1605. Westraw brings
a counter action against his Chief. He died in 1633, and his son, James,
married to Isabel Scott, a relative of the Laird's grandmother, came to an
agreement with the Laird, by which Westraw acknowledged him as his
superior in Harthope and Over and Nether Dryfe, while the Laird, now raised
to the peerage, set forth : " It being noways the intention of the said noble
lord to disquiet the said James Johnestoun of Westraw himself; regarding the
weal always of the house of Westraw, which is descended from him, so he