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

a8 THE JOHNSTONS OF AMERICA
Kirkcudbrightshire— perhaps to follow the old Scottish custom of giving dona-
tions to the neighbouring churches on the occasion of a death. His son,
John Taylor Johnston, married Miss Frances Colles, of New Orleans, and was
one of the founders, and the first President of the Metropolitan Art Museum of
New York (1820-93). They left a son, John Herbert, and three daughters.
The younger of the first generation born in New York, James Boorman
Johnston (1822-87), married (1853) Mary, daughter of M. Humphreys, of Phila-
delphia, eldest son of Major R. Humphreys, and left two daughters and a son,
born 1857. This son, John Humphreys Johnston, of New York, and of Pallazzo
Contarini del Zaffo, Venice, was created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in
1901.
Mrs Bard, the only sister of Mr J. B. Johnston, died at Rome in 1875. She
and her husband founded St. Stephen's College on their property, Annandale,
on the Hudson. The estate was so called by its former owners— Johnstons
from the Southern States.
Possibly John Johnstoun, the merchant, described as of Westoun, Peddinane,
and brother to the late James Johnstoun of Westraw, and who died in 1576,
was the ancestor of John Johnstoun, a physician in Edinburgh, who sailed for
New Amsterdam (New York) in 1645. The ship, 100 feet long, contained
Gordons, Irvings, and other Dumfriesshire names, and was three months on the
road. Nearly all the passengers died of scurvy before it arrived, but Johnstoun
was spared to settle on lands in New Jersey, and there some of his descendants
remain. He brought over books and his coat of arms (those of Johnstoun
without a difference), 1 which are carefully preserved. His family believe that
he came off the Westerhall branch. They have always kept aloof from American
political life.
There was another scion of Westerhall, James Johnstoun, brother's son to
the Laird of Westraw, in 1619, and William Johnstoun, called of Westerhall,
after the Civil War took shelter in the Debateable Land in 1648.
century.
1 The Douglas heart was not added to the Westerhall coat of arms till the eighteenth