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

THE JOHNSTOUNS OF KIRK 33
leaving by his wife, Ellen Eykyn, the present representative of this branch,
Theodore Edgar Dickson Byrne, born 1879, and other children.
Archibald Johnstoun in Kirk, mentioned in the Will of 1574, had two sons,
James and Cuthbert. The last came to Newbie when it was sold to the Laird of
Johnstoun in 1606, and married Bessie Fareis, widow of John Johnstoun of
Mylnfield. Their grandson, John M'Millan, was returned heir to Cuthbert in
1669. James and Joan M'Millan, with John, their son, held the lands that
Cuthbert owned in Dryfesdale and the M'Millan lands in Galloway, in 1688.
In 1701 these were sold to Robert Johnston, Dean of Dumfries, and Jean
Cannon, his wife, from whom they came to the family of Elsieshields.
James Fareis of Dalfibble, a relative to Bessie, was a witness before the
Privy Council about the Maxwell outrage in 1602.
More than a century earlier two of the junior branches of Elsieshields had
become more important than its head. In 1587 Gavin of Kirkton, who had
a Government post in Edinburgh, carried private letters from the wife of
Sir John Johnstoun to be delivered personally to the King. His sister-in-law is
stated, on no good authority, to have given the coup de grace to Lord Maxwell at
Dryfe Sands, when lying wounded on the field he saw her looking for her
husband, and asked her to assist him. This battle outlawed the whole clan, but
her husband, James of Kirkton, and his father before him were in business
in Edinburgh, and he only returned to Dumfriesshire to assist his Chief. Their
son, Archibald, married Rachel Arnot, the daughter of the Lord Provost, Sir
John Arnot, and must have been one of the richest men of his time. He paid
£10,500 to the Laird of Johnstoun for a mortgage of Newbie Castle and estate,
and appears to have bought the escheat of Westraw from Carmichael (Chapter
IV.), as James Johnstoun of Westraw obtained his consent and that of his son,
James, before finally parting with his hereditary lands. Archibald died in
16 19, two years after his son, James, and, as his eldest grandson, Archibald,
afterwards Lord Warrieston, was not of age, and the grandfather, Thomas Craig,
was his tutor, a family suit about the division of a previous marriage settlement
was not brought into Court till F"eb. 16, 1627, when Craig was dead.
The case is thus recorded. Archibald, eldest son to the late James
Johnstoun, merchant burgess of Edinburgh, Mr Samuel Johnstoun of Sheens,
advocate, and Mr Joseph Johnstoun, his brother (Archibald's uncles and tutors),
against Elspeth Craig, relict of the said late James, regarding a contract of
marriage made between the late Mr Thomas Craig, advocate, Helen Arnot, his
spouse, and the late Archibald Johnstoun, merchant burgess of Edinburgh,
Rachel Arnot, his spouse, and the said late James Johnstoun, their son, and
Elspeth Craig. A month later the same plaintiffs carry on the suit against
Archibald's mother, Elspeth Craig, and his sisters, Rachel, Margaret, and
Beatrix, and against Mr Robert Burnet (afterwards Lord Crimond), spouse to
the said Rachel (parents to Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, author of
A History of our own Times). In 1636 F-lspeth Craig lent money to Francis,
Earl of Bothwell. Her daughter, Beatrix, was the witness.
Besides belonging to the same branch of Elsieshields, the Johnstouns
D