LOCKHART, John (d. 1693), of Castlehill, Lanarkshire.

John Lockhart was the third son of Sir James Lockhart of Lee, and younger brother of Cromwell’s ambassador to France, Sir William Lockhart*, and the eminent lawyer, George Lockhart II*. Lockhart was educated at Edinburgh University, graduating in 1650, and then studied law, being admitted to the faculty of advocates on 4 January 1656 – four days before his brother George.9Faculty of Advocates ed. Grant, 125. Even before his studies ended, Lockhart was combining law with other duties – possibly on Sir William’s behalf. On 5 September 1655, shortly before the new Scottish council (which included his brother) convened at Edinburgh, he was given a pass to travel anywhere in Scotland.10Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 5 Sept. 1655. On 27 November his house in the capital was exempted from quartering ‘in regard John Lockhart, advocate, is resident here in Edinburgh only four months of the term’.11Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 27 Nov. 1655. With Sir William’s departure for Paris as Oliver Cromwell’s* ambassador to France, John set aside his legal practice to become his brother’s principal agent in Britain. On 24 April 1656, as he took ship from Rye, Sir William wrote to Secretary John Thurloe* asking that the Scottish signet be given to ‘my brother [now] going for Scotland’, and suggested that he could also ‘carry the other seals, if it be thought convenient’.12TSP iv. 728. Lockhart was kept in London ready to perform this duty at least until June 1656.13TSP v. 76.

Lockhart had returned to Scotland by 20 August 1656, when he was a voter in the Lanarkshire election which returned his brother as MP. His own election, for the shires of Dunbarton, Argyll and Bute, was probably on Sir William’s interest, and it is perhaps telling that the indenture carefully identified him as ‘John Lockhart, brother german to Colonel Lockhart’.14C219/45, unfol. There was also a political element to his election. Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) had made sure that the marquess of Argyll (Archibald Campbell*) did not stand for his home territory of Argyllshire, and there is a suspicion that the choice of Lockhart was a calculated snub to Argyll. Lockhart had taken his seat in the Commons by 26 September, when he was named to the committee of Scottish affairs.15CJ vii. 428b. His committee appointments are difficult to disentangle from those of his brother-in-law, George Lockhart I (who sat for Lanark Burghs) but it is probable that John Lockhart was named to the committees on trade (20 Oct.), the prevention of robbery in the borders (4 Dec.), and postage (29 May) – all of which had implications for Scotland.16CJ vii. 442a, 464a, 542a. On 25 March 1657 Lockhart joined his brother-in-law in voting in favour of offering the crown to Oliver Cromwell* in the Humble Petition and Advice, and in this they were probably acting in line with the views of Sir William – whose second wife was Cromwell’s niece.17Narrative of the Late Parliament (1657), 23 (E.935.5). On 15 June 1657 Lockhart was added to the committee considering stricter rules on the Scottish franchise, which not only countered the Humble Petition, but also had the potential to exclude many members of his family, including his brother.18CJ vii. 557a.

Lockhart also assisted his brother in the controversy over the future of the duchess of Hamilton’s inheritance. On 8 October 1656 Sir William told the duchess’s agent that ‘[I] have ordered my brother to let me know so soon as anything is moved concerning it, that I may do it more particularly’; and in March and early April 1657 John organised the legal papers when Sir William gave the duchess a formal discharge for part of her debts.19NRS, GD 406/1/2533, 2536, 2538. Throughout 1657 the ambassador’s salary was received by his brother in London, before being send to Paris under bills of exchange.20TSP vi. 591-2. John Lockhart also proved to be an essential contact between the ambassador and the Cromwellian government. On 19 February 1657 Thurloe told Sir William that he had received his letters ‘by your brother, who arrived here this day’.21Bodl. Clarendon 54, f. 2; TSP vi. 63. On 23 February Lockhart reported his efforts to lobby Bulstrode Whitelocke* and others for official intervention in his brother’s dispute with the Hamiltons of Dalzell, as well as notifying him of proceedings in Parliament.22Bodl. Clarendon 54, f. 9. On 5 March Lockhart sent a detailed report of the progress of the Humble Petition to his brother.23CCSP iii. 258. In May Sir William told Thurloe that he had sent a secret message to him ‘under my brother’s covert’.24TSP i. 731. At the end of June Sir William told John ‘not to leave London till you hear from me’, and in July he told Thurloe of ‘the constant accounts I receive from my brother of the continuance of your goodness to me’.25SP78/113, f. 224; TSP vi. 385.

Lockhart probably returned to Scotland in the autumn of 1657, but he did not stay there for long, as in early November he had secured a pass from George Monck* to cross to Ireland, to take possession of a lease of lands in co. Armagh recently granted to him by the protector.26Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 5 Nov. 1657; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 354; Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii, 681. The lease was controversial, as the lands were claimed by established Protestant families, and despite letters of support from his brother to the new lord deputy, Henry Cromwell*, Lockhart was soon negotiating for the grant of lands elsewhere in Ireland.27Henry Cromwell Corresp. 354, 438, 440; Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii, 681-2. After a few weeks in Ireland, Lockhart returned to England, where he attended the second sitting of the Parliament in January 1658.28Henry Cromwell Corresp. 440. After the dissolution in February he remained in London, where he was involved (as his brother’s agent) in attempts to secure pension payments for the earl of Lothian, who was related to the Lockharts through the Douglases of Mordington.29Corresp. of the Earls of Ancram and Lothian (2 vols. Edinburgh, 1875) i. p. cxv; ii. 411. He also lobbied the protectoral council on his brother’s behalf, writing to Colonel Philip Jones* to remind him of his brother’s ‘interest’ in the duchess of Hamilton’s case when it once again came before the council in July 1658.30CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 102; TSP vii. 278.

John Lockhart’s election for Lanark Burghs for the third protectorate Parliament in January 1659, in place of the recently deceased George Lockhart I, was a development of his existing relationship with Glasgow. On 19 June 1658 the provost, baillies and council of Glasgow had elected Lockhart as ‘their lawful commissioner … to act and agent before his highness, the lord protector’ in defence of the burgh’s liberties, and in particular to secure the freedom of election of their own magistrates ‘so much opposed by Mr [Patrick] Gillespie and his adherents’ in the Protester faction of the Kirk.31Extracts from the Recs. of Glasgow, 1630-62 (Sc. Burgh Recs. Soc. 1881), 399. Soon afterwards, Lockhart was appointed by Richard Cromwell* commissary for the shires of Lanark, Renfrew and Dunbarton.32NLS, Lockhart Charters A.1, folder 4, no. 16. Lockhart’s return for Glasgow and the other Lanark Burghs in the parliamentary election was thus a continuation of his role as their agent and legal adviser. On 5 March 1659 the Glasgow council voted to give him £100 sterling to cover his expenses at Westminster – the same sum that his brother-in-law, George Lockhart I had received in 1657.33Glasgow Recs. 363, 414. At Westminster, Lockhart seconded his brother, George Lockhart II, in his defence of the right of the Scottish MPs to sit in the Commons. On 18 March, once George had been ‘taken down’ for speaking twice on the subject, John took the baton, opposing the need for the Scottish MPs to withdraw from the House, and claiming: ‘I am not free to withdraw. The mutual contract between the nations was that they might have part of the legislature with you’. Despite being interrupted, he continued to take a strongly pro-union stance, arguing that ‘any 30 members serve as much for that nation as they do’, presumably meaning that the union, in Parliament at least, had removed any distinction between England and Scotland. This sort of talk provoked a hostile response from the English MPs, who had already tired of the dispute, and Thomas Burton* thought ‘he did the debate a great deal of harm’.34Burton’s Diary, iv. 185-6.

The collapse of the protectorate put the Lockhart family in a difficult position. John Lockhart remained in England during the summer of 1659, keeping an eye on the changes at London which threatened his brother’s position at Dunkirk. On 20 June, having attended Sir William to Dover, Lockhart promised that ‘as soon as I come at London I shall deliver the president his letter and the others as directed’ concerning his pay arrears. Such personal business might be in doubt, but he was confident that the Dunkirk regiments would be secure for now, as ‘my Lord [John] Lambert* and Mr [Thomas] Scot* (especially) hath taken care in the business of the garrison’.35Bodl. Clarendon 61, f. 253; SP78/114, f. 270. During the spring of 1660, the two brothers remained very close, and on 15 April Sir William made his brother deputy of the Scottish signet.36NLS, Lockhart Charters A.1, folder 2, nos. 9-10. Both brothers lost their offices after the restoration of the monarchy, but John, unlike Sir William, was able to regain government support relatively quickly, being appointed a lord of session (and taking the title Lord Castlehill) in November 1665.37Faculty of Advocates ed. Grant, 125. The Lockharts continued to work together throughout this period, and the court of session in the 1670s was something of a family affair, with the ageing Sir James joining John on the bench, while George Lockhart II served as advocate.38CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 496; Lockhart, Seven Centuries, 56. Lockhart outlived both his brothers, dying in 1694. His daughter Martha married Sir William Lockhart’s son, Cromwell Lockhart, while his son and heir, James, survived him by only two years, and died childless.39Lockhart, Seven Centuries, 52, appx.