Clan Johnstone

History

The name is a place name: 'John's toun', the settlement of a man called John. The first Johnstone on record is that John's son Gilbert, who received land in Annandale from William Bruce, Lord of Annandale, at some point between about 1195 and 1214. A Johan de Joneston appears on the Ragman Roll of 1296 among the Scots who swore fealty to Edward I of England. There is no grand origin legend here. The Johnstones begin as tenants of the Bruces in a Border valley.

That valley shaped them. Annandale lies on the western road into Scotland, and its families lived by defending it and, often enough, by raiding across it. Johnstone chiefs served at various times as Wardens of the West March. Johnstones are said to have fought the English on the Solway in 1378 and at Otterburn in 1388. In 1455 they backed James II against the Black Douglases, fought at Arkinholm and took part in the siege of Threave Castle. They were rewarded with land, and from then on they were a power in the south-west. In 1542 the laird's lands were made a free barony.

Their great rivals were the Maxwells, who competed with them for the wardenship and for leadership in Dumfriesshire. The feud ran for generations. Lochwood Tower, the Johnstone stronghold near Beattock, was burned. On 6 December 1593 the two sides met at Dryfe Sands near Lockerbie. The Johnstones won decisively. Lord Maxwell was killed, and one account puts the Maxwell dead at around 700. In 1608 Maxwell's son shot Sir James Johnstone dead at a meeting between the two. He was later executed for it in Edinburgh.

After the Union of the Crowns the Border was pacified and the chiefs became peers. James Johnstone was created Lord Johnstone of Lochwood in 1633 and Earl of Hartfell in 1643. He joined Montrose in the civil wars and was captured at Philiphaugh in 1645. After the Restoration his son received the title Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, and in 1701 the family rose again when William Johnstone was made Marquess of Annandale.

The third marquess died unmarried in 1792. The titles fell dormant and the estates passed to the 3rd Earl of Hopetoun, whose line carried the name Hope-Johnstone. Several claims to the titles failed in the nineteenth century. In the early 1980s the Lord Lyon recognised Major Percy Hope Johnstone of Annandale as chief, and in 1985 the House of Lords accepted his son's claim to the earldom of Annandale and Hartfell. The chief's home is Raehills in Annandale.

There is a second, separate family of the name. The Johnstons of Caskieben in Aberdeenshire descend from a Stiven de Johnston who lived in the fourteenth century, and they became baronets of Nova Scotia in 1626. Their crest is a phoenix rather than the winged spur. Many Annandale Johnstones also moved to Ulster from the early 1600s, which is why the name is so common in Northern Ireland and, through later emigration, in North America. The spellings Johnston and Johnstone are used interchangeably, and neither marks a particular branch.