# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnston, James (1643?-1737)

Date of birth 1655 in later editions. 1904 Errata appended.
​JOHNSTON or JOHNSTONE, JAMES (1643?–1737), ‘Secretary Johnston,’ was a younger son of Sir Archibald Johnston, lord Warriston [q. v.] On the execution of his father in 1663 he, with other members of the family, took refuge in Holland, where he studied civil law, and, according to Macky (Secret Memoirs), ‘had the character of the greatest proficient that ever was in Utrecht.’ When William of Orange's invasion was projected, Johnston was introduced by his cousin, Bishop Burnet, to Henry Sidney, lord Romney, because Sidney ‘was lazy, and the business required an active man, who could both run abroad and write over full accounts of all matters’ (Burnet, Own Time, ed. 1838, p. 485). After preparations for the expedition had been arranged in Holland, Sidney and Johnston came over to England, and brought with them a full scheme of advices, together with the heads of a declaration (ib. p. 487). After the accession of William of Orange to the throne of England Johnston was, in February 1688–9 (Luttrell, Brief Relation, ii. 15), sent as envoy to the elector of Brandenburg, to whom he brought from King William the order of the Garter. In connection with its presentation he communicated to the elector ‘A History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter,’ which was printed in ‘State Tracts,’ 1707, and reprinted separately in 1712 (copy in library of British Museum). After his return he was, in 1692, made joint secretary for Scotland with Dalrymple. Obtaining, by means of a Scottish spy, intelligence of the intended La Hogue descent of the same year, Johnston warned the government of the danger, of which they were quite unsuspicious. This, according to Macky, ‘gave him great credit at court, but created him enemies and enviers in both kingdoms.’
By birth and training an extreme presbyterian, Johnston's sympathies were with the people, and, according to Macky, he was ‘the first to show the commons’ of Scotland ‘their strength,’ his aim being to establish them in a position independent of the nobility. Dissatisfied with the lukewarm presbyterianism of his colleague, Dalrymple, and probably also jealous of Dalrymple's special influence with the king, Johnston was one of the chief instigators of the inquiry in 1695 into the massacre of Glencoe. Dalrymple was thus driven from power. In January 1695–6 the king dismissed Johnston for promoting in the Scottish parliament the bill for establishing an African company. In 1696 Johnston married at Salisbury Catharine Poulett, third daughter by his first wife of John, second baron Poulett (Collins, Peerage, iv. 203; ib. iv. 71). On 13 April of the following year he received a grant for 5,000l. out of the rents of the nonjuring bishops of Scotland (ib. p. 209). The grant was gradually to be made up by yearly tithes. Lockhart asserted that Johnston, in collecting the tithes, ‘miserably harassed a great many gentlemen by tedious, vexatious suits, and compelling them to pay him considerable sums for renewing their tithes.’ When the Act of Resumption was proposed, in 1711, Johnston asked Lockhart whether it was intended to include his grant in the act (Papers, i. 367), and added that he would be able so to satisfy the house that they would except his grant from the resumption, although he might be obliged to make known things ‘so amazing that people's hair would stand on end on their heads at hearing of them’ (ib.)
Johnston's dismissal from office, said Macky, ‘soured him so as never to be reconciled all the king's reign, tho' much esteemed.’ ‘The freedom of his manners,’ it is also stated, ‘was rather disgusting to King William, who was often fretful and splenetic’ (Abstract of the ‘History of Statesmen’ in Carstares, State Papers, p. 93). On the succession of Queen Anne he, however, forgot his injuries, and, though resident in England, began to take an interest in Scottish affairs. In 1704 it ‘was proposed by him, in concert with the Marquis of Tweeddale’ and others, ‘that the queen should empower her commissioners to consent’ to a reversal of the settlement made by Charles in 1641. With this view the Marquis of Huntly was named commissioner to the Scottish parliament, and Johnston, having been made lord register, ‘was sent down to promote the design’ (Own Time, p. 761). Burnet, referring to a rumour that ​Godolphin had given underhand directions to ‘hinder the declaring the succession, and that the secret of this was trusted to Johnston, who, they said, talked openly one way and acted secretly another,’ affirmed that he ‘could never see a colour of truth in these reports’ (ib. p. 764). Be this as it may, Johnston was, along with Tweeddale, dismissed from office in the following year, the result being the formation of the squadrone volante party, of which Johnston, though resident in London, continued to be one of the leaders and advisers.
Soon afterwards, however, Johnston gradually ceased to be a prominent figure in Scottish politics. In 1702 he had obtained a lease of Orleans House, Twickenham, where ‘he amused himself with planting and gardening, in which he was reckoned to have a very good taste’ (Abstract in Carstares, State Papers, p. 93). But ‘being naturally active and restless in his temper, he made frequent journeys into different kingdoms. He went several times to Hanover when George I was there, and often conversed with him very familiarly’ (ib.) Macky, in his ‘Tour through England’ (2nd ed. i. 63–4), said: ‘He has the best collection of fruit of all sorts of most gentlemen in England. His slopes for his vines, of which he makes some hogsheads a year, are very particular, and Dr. Bradley, of the Royal Society, who hath wrote so much upon gardening, ranks him among the first-rate gardeners in England.’ Pope's lines,
And Twick'nham such, which fairer scenes enrich, Grots, statues, urns, and J——n's dog and bitch,
refer to the sculptured figures of a dog and bitch on each side of the lawn, subsequently covered with ivy. Johnston built an octagon room at the end of the house specially for the reception and entertainment of Queen Caroline, with whom ‘he was a great favourite,’ and who ‘was much entertained by his humour and pleasantry’ (Carstares, p. 93). He died at Bath in May 1737, at the age of eighty-two. The ‘London Magazine’ gives his age erroneously as ninety-five, and the ‘Historical Register’ as ninety-three. He was buried on the 11th of the month at Twickenham. Macky, who (in 1704) described Johnston as a ‘tall, fair man, and towards fifty years old,’ calls him very honest, and, though ‘too credulous and suspicious,’ one who would not tell a lie for the world. Swift's annotation is a ‘treacherous knave,’ and ‘one of the greatest knaves, even in Scotland.’ Lockhart, of course, thought him a ‘vile and execrable wretch,’ though admitting his shrewdness (Papers, p. 96).
[Burnet's Own Time; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation; Macky's Memoirs; Lockhart Papers; Pope's Works; Wodrow's Correspondence; the Rev. R. S. Cobbett's Memorials of Twickenham; Historical Register, vol. xvii.; Macaulay's Hist. of England; London Magazine, vol. vi. Many of Johnston's letters are in Jerviswoode Correspondence (Bannatyne Club) and Carstares's State Papers.]
T. F. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.169 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 64 | i | 23 | Johnston, James: for (1643? read (1655 |
| | | 25 | after Warriston [q. v.] insert and was baptised 9 Sept. 1655 (Brodie, Diary, 155) |
| 65 | i | 15-14 f.e. | for according to . . . . the age of read at the age of eighty-two. The 'London Magazine' gives his age as |
| | | 13 f.e. | for but according to read and |
| | | 12 f.e. | for at the age of ninety-three only read as ninety-three |