History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with Descriptions of Border Life

338 JOHNSTONS IN AMERICA William. John lived in Bertie, N. Ca. Gabriel married Janet McFarland, son Francis killed, Lieut. Mother and Aunt Francis died Brompton. My father to Ireland after 1715. Got my lands through George Gould. Barfield tories burned my house to cellar. Was at Culloden with father, he wounded, came to Cape Fear 1746. My father died 1775. Marion, two Horrys and Francis Huger met Folsome and Giles my house, all chose Marion, bar Folsome. Hugo took my men with Marion 1780. All horsemen. Francis Huger, and James often at my house. John Rutherford a tory. " Writ by my hand for Susana 8th day of March 1790 " Signed Gilbert Johnston Gentleman." The above Gilbert is stated to have died in 1794. It was at his house in 1780, we are told, that General Marion signed the commissions for the celebrated band of Marion's men. All the sons and nephews of the family seem to have taken part against the British in the American War. It is also stated by the descendant of Gilbert senior that his second son, Henry (born 1727), married Margaret Knox. Henry's son, James, was a Colonel on the Staff of General Rutherford during the American Revolution. He commanded a force in two engagements, and married Jean Ewart. James's fourth son, William, M.D., married Nancy, daughter of General Peter Forney, and died in 1855. He left five sons: (1) James, a Captain in the C.S.A., who married Miss Todd. (2) Robert, Brigadier-General, married Miss Evans. (3) William, Colonel, married Miss Gage. (4) Joseph Forney, born in Lincoln Co., North Carolina, 1843, married Miss Hooper. The last was a Captain in the Confederate Army, with which he served (1861-65), and was four times wounded, but at the end of the war went to Selma, and now practises law in Birmingham, Alabama. He was Governor of Alabama (1896-1900), and in 1907 was elected a Senator of the United States for Alabama. The youngest brother, (5) Bartlett, was an officer in the Confederate Navy. Altogether they were wounded twenty-one times, but all survive except William. Robert, fourth son of Gilbert senior was an attorney and civil engineer. His son, Peter, was also being educated for a civil engineer, when he left his school to enter as a lieutenant in the legion which Colonel Henry Lee recruited in Virginia. He afterwards practised law in Virginia, and must have been the same as Peter, the father of General Joseph Eccleston, who is called by his son's biographer the grandson of a Scot; and in 1780 when Lee's legion arrived at Farmville, in Prince Edward's County, just before Christmas, Peter threw aside his lesson books to mount a horse and join the cavalry. Later, having greatly distinguished himself, Peter Johnston turned his sword into a pen, and became Judge of the South-Western Circuit in Virginia, and Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. He married Mary Wood, a niece of Patrick Henry, Secretary of State to General Washington in 1795. Their eighth son, Joseph Eccleston Johnston, was born in 1807, and was educated among the men who had fought against the British in 1777-83. This probably led him to choose the army as a profession, and in 1829 he graduated at the Military Academy of JOHNSTONS IN AMERICA 339 West Point. He had served with the Federal Army in all its campaigns, and been severely wounded, up to the time that the Southern States declared for independence. He was then Lieutenant-Colonel and Quartermaster-General, but, a Virginian educated with Virginian funds, he thought it his duty to throw up his commission and join the South, where he was born, against the North. As he chose the losing side he was involved in all its disasters, but is looked upon as the most experienced and skilful General in the war. He married Louisa M'Lane, whose grandfather served as a Captain under Washington. He died in 1 891. Dr George Ben. Johnston, of Richmond, Virginia, is his grand- nephew. The next brother of Gilbert senior is said to have been Samuel, who married Helen Scrymgeour, and came to Onslow County, North Carolina, in 1736. His son, Samuel, was the Naval Officer of North Carolina in 1775, Treasurer during the Revolution, and Governor of North Carolina from 1787-89. He was President of the Convention that finally adopted the Constitution for this State, which stood for sixty years unchanged. He was the first Senator elected by North Carolina to the United States Congress in 1789. He died in i8i6and his son, James, was the largest planter in the United States on his death in 1865. The elder Samuel's second son, John, was a Captain of Light Horse in the Revolution. He died in 1790, and his descendants live in North Carolina, Texas, and Canada. The senior representative of this branch of Johnston is Huger William of Idlewild, Georgia ; married, 1871, Emma O. Johnstone. They have many children and grandchildren. He is great-grandson of Hugo, born 1751, died 1795, and of Susanna Barefield, his wife— first cousin to her husband, who was eldest son of Gilbert Johnston, junr. (died 1794). The latter part of this family history, including the children and brothers of Gilbert junior can be proved, but so far this is not the case with the first part, and inaccuracy is only natural when a worn-out old man describes family links of ninety years before from memory alone. He may have mixed up his grandfather with his great-grandfather in calling him John Johnston of Stapleton, for Stapleton, a part of the Graitney parish, contained many Johnstons, some of whom settled in America, and also sent out soldiers of fortune to foreign lands. The unusual name of Gabriel might very probably be introduced by a French connection. But a different parentage to that in Gilbert's statement is shown for Gabriel, and Samuel Johnston, the husband of Helen Scrymgeour, in Fasti Scoticz Eccles., and in the collections of Robert Riddell Stodart of the Lyon Office, Edinburgh. The Rev. Samuel Johnston, 1 who graduated M.A. of Edinburgh in 1677, was successively minister of Southdean, Roxburgh, in 1690, and of Dundee in 1699. He married Isabel Hall, and two of their children, Gabriel and Samuel, were baptised at Southdean in 1698 and 1699. Three 1 if He was older than the Hon. John Johnston, who was not born till 1668 ; but he came from the Elsieshields' branch, as seems probable from his name, or if his father was John Johnston of Stapleton, possibly of Graitney, his descendants would be equally of Annandale. 34 o JOHNSTONS IN AMERICA Nathaniel, Dec. more were baptised at Dundee, viz. : Elizabeth, Dec. 2, 1700 ; 27, May 1709. 1702 ; and Joseph, 4, Mr R. R. Stodart adds that Gabriel had another brother, John. There may also have been Gilbert, a name found among the Graitney, Elphinstone, Newton, Elsieshields and Powdene Johnstouns—probably among them all. John St. Andrews, is described as a Surveyor-General ; Gabriel, as being educated at and afterwards a Professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in the New College of St. Andrews. He resigned, and emigrated to America, where he was appointed Governor of Carolina. Samuel, junr., married Helen Scrym- baptised at geour, and two of their sons were Dundee—Samuel, Dec. 22, 1733 ; John, Aug. 14, 1735. It is likely that the migration of these Johnstons to America was caused by Jacobite sympathies, particularly if they went by way of Armagh, where the Woodpark Johnstons shared their views and were perhaps connections. Armagh was also a convenient place for testing the support that a Jacobite attempt was likely to find in the west of Scotland. Without admitting the claim put forward by their descendants that Gilbert senior, Gabriel, and Samuel were the sons of John, the brother of the first Marquis of Annandale, it may readily be conceded that they were a valiant and sturdy family, pushing to the front in politics and battle, and carrying on the motto and best traditions of the clan in the New World. General Albert Sydney Johnston was the son of a physician, John Johnston, whose father was Archibald, the descendant of a Scottish family long settled in Connecticut. He was born in Kentucky, 1803, and graduated at West Point, but, throwing up his commission, entered the Confederate Army as a private. He was killed in the Civil War, 1862. Josiah Stallard Johnston, an Author, is his nephew; and William Preston Johnston has published his biography. Robert Matteson Johnston, Professor of History, is the author of The French Revolution, The Roman Theocracy and the Republic, and other books. Alexander Johnston, A.M., is noted for his works on American history and politics. William Andrew Johnston is a Historical Writer. Thomas Crawford Johnston, an Essayist in California. W. W. Johnston (New York), Author. Richard Malcolm Johnston, Author. Richard Holland Johnston, Author. William Dawson Johnstone, of Chicago, son of Rev. James Arthur and Jannette Johnston, is Librarian at the Bureau of Education, Washington. Charles, the son of William Johnston, M.P. for Belfast, was born at Bally- kilbeg, Ireland, and passed into the Bengal Civil Service. He was invalided home two years later, and became an Author. He married Georgina Barbara, daughter of Sir John Hay, Bart., and is President of the Irish Literary Society, New York. He lives at Flushing, New York. George Ben. Johnston, Surgeon, graduated in the City of New York College, 1876; LL.D. of St.

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