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

WAR WITH ENGLAND 55
in his official capacity proceeded against Johnstoun and his colleagues, John,
Andrew, and Roland Bell, and William and Matthew Johnstoun, accusing
them of "the cruel murder of Symon (nicknamed Mickle) Armstrong" (the
incendiary). James Douglas of Drumlanrig was their cautioner, and as they
failed to appear they were all denounced rebels, so, for the second time in
twenty-seven years, Johnstoun's estates were sequestrated, while his rival
triumphed.
As William Johnstoun was engaged with his Chief against the Armstrongs,
the opportunity was taken to respite Thomas Come, who had been an outlaw
for four years, and enable him to proceed against the present owner of Nfewbie.
An interim decreet, dated March 1527, is "anent the summons made at the
instance of Kehvood, against William Johnstoun of Grcitknovv, for the wrong
and violent, and masterful occupation, labouring and manuring {i.e., settling
labourers on the land) by himself, his servants and his accomplices, &c, without
licence of the said Thomas Corrie, of the two parts of all and whole his lands
and lordship of Newbie." William was summoned, but did not appear, being
engaged in defending his country. It was decreed that he should cease from
his occupation of Newbie, and repay Corrie for the fishing, the use of the mill,
and profits of timber, etc. An unfortunate moment for a dispute over a Border
tower, when the English were threatening war on account of the moss troopers
of Liddesdale, Corrie's allies.
Lord Dacre wrote to Cardinal Wolsey in 1528 that "the Debateable Land
is now clear waste owing to the Johnstoun and Maxwell feuds." On April 2,
1529, "the Lord Maxwell caused the Armstrongs to make a raid upon the
Lord of Johnstoun, his own sister's son, who is at deadly feud with them for
the killing of Mickle Armstrong, where they killed three of his friends, and the
Lord Maxwell himself lay in ambush purposely to have killed the said Lord
of Johnstoun if he had pursued them."
The same year Johnstoun and Edward Maxwell took the head of a thief
to Edinburgh, and received £100 from the King.
Wharton succeeded Dacre as Warden of the Borders, and wrote to Henry
VIII. in 1542 that " Lochinvar (Gordon) and the Johnstouns are the greatest
enemies Maxwell had," owing to their wish to supplant him in the offices
he held on the East and West Borders—one in Annandale, the other in
Galloway.
Perhaps the young King James became a little alarmed at the English
attitude, for he summoned Bothwell of Liddesdale, Maxwell, Johnstoun, Home
who called himself Earl of Dunbar, and Walter Scott of Bucclcuch to
Edinburgh, and imprisoned them in the Castle ; while he marched with 8000
men to the Borders, and summoned the chiefs to meet him on the Solway.
He hanged Johnnie Armstrong with thirty-one well-horsed followers, caused
Sandie Scott, " a prowd thief," to be burnt alive for burning a widow's house
with some of her children, and, in short, asserted the Royal supremacy. 1
Solway.
1 Johnstoun was pardoned in 1529 for being in ward; not meeting the King on the