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

54
WAR WITH ENGLAND
Since the Royal Proclamation charging George de Corrie with treachery
and rebellion in 1484 and depriving him of his estates, Newbie, the southern
half of his Barony, had been persistently attacked by the Johnstouns
and Corrie's neighbours. Its strong tower, its excellent fishings, mills, and
pasturage, added to the Tower of Stapleton, and its seaport, with its command
of the mouth of the Annan, made it a special prize. First the Murrays attacked
it ; then John Lindsay of Wauchope, who also acted as security for Thomas
Rae, who destroyed the mill, house, and property in Newbie in 1488. Lindsay
on the first occasion was ordered to pay a grey horse to William of Corrie,
six cows to James Corrie, and .£100 to Thomas Corrie, but it was not till 1530
that he was called upon to pay £140 and 16 marks to Corrie on Rae's behalf.
In 1494 Symon Carruthers, Johnstoun's stepson, attacked Newbie. Then a
Johnstoun appears in the Tower of Stapleton, in the Newbie Barony, and, as
Adam of Johnstoun is made responsible for him as well as for William Johnstoun
of Graitney, he must have been his " depender." Then a Carruthers of
Wormanbie attacks Newbie, in company with Andrew Johnstoun and some
Armstrongs, and kills a labourer and a tenant, and for this Carruthers is
condemned to be hanged, but as his friends and neighbours were his judges
they possibly let him escape.
In 1511 Adam Johnstoun de Newbie is on the Assize, 1 in company with
David Johnstoun de Brotis, Roger Carruthers of Wormanbie, John Herries,
and others. Whether this Adam Johnstoun de Newbie was the same who
became Adam de Corrie when he afterwards married the heiress, or some
other relative, it shows that Newbie was recognised as a Johnstoun possession
twelve years before William of Graitney made it his own.
It has been shown that the acquisition of Newbie and Corrie by the
Johnstouns influenced Maxwell in his patronage of the Armstrongs. They
bordered on both halves of the Barony, and could feed their hungry families
with Johnstoun's corn and cattle without invading England ; and could
effectually weaken Johnstoun by keeping his followers always on the defence.
Maxwell was half-hearted in his allegiance to his own King, who was not
the character to command a strong man's respect, and he was accredited with
the intention to make the office of Warden, a lucrative as well as influential
post, hereditary in his own family.
The King desired peace with his uncle, Henry VIII., and the Armstrongs
disturbed it. Apparently by his wish, if not by his direct command, Johnstoun
chased them as far as Carlisle, just after they had burned Netherby in revenge
for Lord Dacre having pursued them into the Debateable Land. Johnstoun's
action was represented by his enemies as a raid on English territory. The
King in Parliament declared himself to be entirely ignorant of it, and Maxwell
1 Buchanan (1572) explains how these courts were constituted. A man of position and
good repute was placed at the head as convener, and the judges (jury) consisted of twelve or
more, if the services of so many men of the same class as the accused could be obtained. A
little later the plaintiff chose a friend or man of good repute to be his pleader (actornate),
and another might act as baillie (also a pleader) for the defendant, all being amateurs, not
professionals.