# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, Robert

​JOHNSTON, ROBERT (1567?–1639), historian, the son of ‘an honest burgess of Edinbro',’ was born about 1567, either in Edinburgh or some part of Annandale. He was educated at the Edinburgh University, and graduated M.A. there in 1587. He is described in later life as doctor of the civil and canon law, a degree which he probably obtained at some foreign university. On the accession of James I to the English throne he seems to have left Scotland for London, in the train of a relative, Sir Robert Johnston. He had been in correspondence with Cecil in 1601 and 1602 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. i. 275, 7th Rep. i. 182–7). On 8 Dec. 1604 he was appointed clerk of the deliveries of the ordinance, on surrender by Sir Thomas Johnston (State Papers, Dom. James I, vol. x.) He is known to have held the post as late as 1618, and may have retained it till his death. In the will of his friend George Heriot [q. v.], 1623, he is described as a gentleman of London. In 1637 he was involved in a dispute with the crown concerning the execution of Heriot's will (see his own History, xx. 637, and State Papers, Dom. Car. I, ccclv. 134–5). Johnston, who was, in the words of Dempster, ‘licet non aulicus, regi acceptus,’ amassed, like Heriot, a considerable fortune. He died between 12 and 18 Oct. 1639, and is described in his will, which is printed in Constable's ‘Memoir of George Heriot,’ as ‘Robert Johnson, of the parish of St. Anne's, Blackfryars, London, esq.’ He left 1,000l. towards the maintenance of eight poor scholars in the university of Edinburgh, which Middleton, who translated the first edition of Johnston's work, magnifies into an endowment of eight fellowships at an expense of 12,000l., mentioning further donations of 4,000l. to the city of Edinburgh. The total amount actually disposed of in charities by Johnston's will was slightly over 13,000l.
Johnston left in manuscript at his death a Latin history of English and Scottish affairs from 1572 to 1628, in twenty-two books. Of these the first three were published at Amsterdam in 1642, under the title: 1. ‘Roberti Johnstoni, Scoto-Britanni, historiarum libri duo, continentes Rerum Britannicarum vicinarumque regionum historias maxime memorabiles,’ Amsterdam, 1642. The work is dedicated to Charles I. 2. So much of the above publication as related to Scottish affairs was translated from Latin into English by ‘T. M.’ (Thomas Middleton, the author of the appendix to Spotiswood's ‘History’), and published under the title, ‘The History of Scotland during the Minority of King James,’ London, 1646; reprinted Edinburgh, 1826 and 1836. 3. In 1655 the complete work appeared in folio with the title, ‘Historia Rerum Britannicarum ut et multarum Gallicarum, Belgicarum, et Germanicarum, tam politicarum quam ecclesiasticarum, ab anno 1572 ad annum 1628,’ Amsterdam, 1655.
A large manuscript ‘History of Scotland,’ in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, has been wrongly attributed to Robert Johnston. It was, according to a note in Fairfax's hand, the gift of a ‘Mr. David Johnston, burgess of Edinburgh, being the labour of his late father and grandfather.’ Robert Johnston left no issue.
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Thomson's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Irving's Lives of Scotish Writers; Tytler's Life of Henry Lord Home or Kames; Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Gentis Scotorum; Nicolson's Scottish Hist. Library; A. Constable's Life of George Heriot; Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports; State Papers, Dom.]
W. A. S.