JOHNSTONE, James (1625-72), 2nd earl of Hartfell [S], of Lochwood and Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire.

The Johnstones had owned estates in Annandale division of Dumfriesshire since the twelfth century, and during the middle ages were clients of the Bruces, lords of Annandale. The family remained as lairds until the early seventeenth century, when James Johnstone was created Lord Johnstone of Lochwood by Charles I. Despite this connection with the Stuarts, the Johnstones were initially supporters of the Covenant, and raised a regiment against the king in the bishops’ wars of 1639-40. In 1643 Lord Johnstone was elevated to the earldom of Hartfell, and from then on his allegiances wavered. Although he supported Scottish intervention in the English civil war in early 1644, by the end of the year the new earl had sided with James Graham, marquess of Montrose, and was arrested for his royalist activities by the committee of estates in 1645. Released on payment of a fine in March, he then re-joined Montrose, and was present at the marquess’s defeat at Philiphaugh in September. This time he only escaped execution through the good offices of the marquess of Argyll (Archibald Campbell*), and he was excluded from politics for the rest of the decade. He took no part in the Engagement of 1647-8, and re-emerged from retirement only briefly, in 1651, to support Charles Stuart’s claim to the throne. On his death in April 1653, the 1st earl of Hartfell was succeeded by his son, who was 28 years of age.11Scots Peerage, i. 230, 255-9; Fraser, Annandale, i. pp. cxcviii-ccx.

Despite his relative youth, the 2nd earl had already played an active political role in support of his father. He had been made executor of his father’s estates in August 1640, at the age of 15; in the spring of 1645 he was briefly imprisoned for his support of Montrose; in May of the same year he contracted a very political marriage, with a daughter of the 1st marquess of Douglas, whose wife was a kinswoman of the royalist marquess of Huntly; and like his father he was captured and imprisoned after Philiphaugh.12Scots Peerage, i. 259; Fraser, Annandale, i. pp. ccxiv-ccxv. These royalist credentials, added to his father’s notorious political views, made the 2nd earl of Hartfell suspect in the eyes of the Cromwellian invaders, and he was imprisoned at Leith from September 1651.13Nicoll, Diary, 59. After his release, Hartfell was kept under close control. Having succeeded his father in April 1653, in the following October he was forced to sign a bond for £2,000 to appear when demanded at the army headquarters at Dalkeith, or at the garrisons of Glasgow and Ayr.14Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 16 Oct. 1653. When he was granted permission to keep six horses for his own use in January 1654, he had to sign an engagement not to use them against the commonwealth.15Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 7 Jan. 1654. Under the ordinance of grace and pardon, passed in April 1654, Hartfell was included as a delinquent, and ordered to pay a fine of £2,000.16A. and O. ii. 881.

The restrictions of Cromwellian rule, and in particular the threat of financial penalties, seem to have persuaded Hartfell that it was prudent to co-operate with the new regime. The English government, eager to instil peace in the lawless border region, responded to his approaches with alacrity. Thus, in August 1654, four months after being fined for royalism, Hartfell was returned as MP for Dumfriesshire, on his own interest.17Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, p. lvi. Immediately afterwards, he was given permission to carry arms and apprehend robbers and moss troopers in Dumfriesshire, and put in charge of reforming the assessment collections in the shire.18Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 23 Sept., 14 Oct. 1654. The threat of levying his own tax arrears ‘before the late coming of the English army in Scotland’ was also lifted.19Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 18 Oct. 1654. There is no evidence that Hartfell attended the first protectorate Parliament, and letters from November 1654 show that he was at his house at Kirkmichael during the parliamentary session.20Fraser, Annandale, ii. 37-8. Hartfell was in London shortly afterwards, however, trying to secure the mitigation of his fine, and his case was considered by the protectoral council. On 9 March 1655, the committee on fines recommended that Hartfell should pay only £500 (a motion confirmed on 6 April), but this was not enough.21CSP Dom. 1655, p. 70; HMC Var. v. 162. The expiry, in May 1655, of the ordinance allowing Scottish landowners relief from their creditors, put Hartfell and others at risk, not least because many nobles had acted as cautioners for their equally insolvent friends and relatives – as Hartfell had for the massively indebted earl of Home.22NRAS 832 (earl of Lothian pprs.), box 18, folder 1; box 15, bundle 7. Hartfell, still resident in London, was at the forefront of attempts to gain further protection for the debt-ridden nobles from the government during the summer and autumn of 1655.23CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 181, 278, 284, 319. By July he had enlisted the support of Charles Howard*, a member of the newly appointed Scottish council, who promised to lobby ‘four of the council’ on Hartfell’s behalf.24Fraser, Annandale, i. p. ccxix; ii. 303. The earl’s efforts, and his ‘12 petitions’ in his case, had the desired effect, and he prepared to return to Scotland.25Fraser, Annandale, ii. 305. In October the protectoral council allowed Hartfell and others freedom from prosecution while their cases were being decided by the Scottish council, and on 6 November his remaining fine under the ordinance of pardon and grace, was removed.26CSP Dom. 1655, p. 364; 1655-6, p. 8.

Hartfell’s success in London was partly due to General George Monck’s* worries that financial pressures might force indigent nobles into rebellion; but it is also likely that he was benefiting from his family ties to the wife of Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*), the president of the new Scottish council.27P. Little, Lord Broghill and the Cromwellian Union with Ire. and Scot. (Woodbridge, 2004), 93-4. Broghill’s residence in Scotland between September 1655 and August 1656 certainly coincided with the high-point of Hartfell’s collaboration with the English government. In January 1656 the earl was allowed a pass to travel freely throughout Scotland; in March his brother William Johnstone was made lieutenant-colonel in Lord Douglas’s regiment raised to fight in the French army; and in April he was allowed to keep four valuable horses for his own use in Dumfriesshire.28Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 29 Jan., 26 Mar., 30 Apr. 1656. During this period, Hartfell was also included in the new local commissions created by the government, as assessment commissioner and as justice of the peace for Dumfriesshire.29Acts Parl. Scot. vi. part 2, p. 839; Scot. and Protectorate, ed. Firth, 311. He played an active role in the commission of the peace, convening the magistrates and taking their oaths in February and March 1656 and signing letters thereafter.30Fraser, Annandale, ii. 38-9; NRS, JC26/25, loose pprs. He also arbitrated disputes involving the earls of Queenberry and Traquair in May and June of the same year.31NRAS 54 (Stewart of Traquair), ‘Fraser Chest’, bundle 10, no. 18; bundle 11, no. 57. In August 1656 Hartfell was able to use his improved local standing to influence the parliamentary elections. Lord Broghill told John Thurloe* that ‘there was some design in Dumfries there to choose one I did not like’ and in response he sent for ‘Lord Hartfell, a kinsman of my wife’s, and the leading man there; and I have engaged him to choose Judge Smyth and Colonel Salmon’.32TSP v. 295. Hartfell’s intervention was direct, and effective: he attended the elections in person and signed at least one of the indentures.33C219/45, unfol. As a result, George Smyth* and Edward Salmon* were returned unopposed for Dumfriesshire and the Dumfries burghs respectively.

With the departure of Broghill for the opening of the second protectorate Parliament in September 1656, Hartfell’s support for the Cromwellian regime became less active. He was included in the assessment commissions of 1657 and 1660, and was authorised to issue certificates for those seeking passes to Ireland, but he played no part in national politics.34Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 23 and 24 Oct. 1656. In the late 1650s, Hartfell was more concerned with private matters. With the birth of five daughters earlier in the decade, the earl was concerned that his title would not outlive him. From 1655, therefore, he planned changes to the entail, allowing the earldom to pass through the female line; and the formal resignation of his title (to be re-granted by the protector) was signed in June 1657, and delivered to the Scottish exchequer.35Scots Peerage, i. 260; Fraser, Annandale, i. pp. ccxxiv-ccxxviii. There is also evidence that Hartfell was increasingly concerned at his financial position, and in 1658 he was again trying to disentangle himself from the debts of the earl of Home.36Scots Peerage, i. 262; NRAS 832, box 15, folder 7. Hartfell welcomed the restoration of Charles II, and travelled to London to greet the new monarch in person. Despite his open support for the Cromwellians in the mid-1650s, Hartfell was now treated as a true royalist. He received not only the confirmation of his title as earl of Hartfell, but also the more prestigious one of earl of Annandale (in February 1661); and in 1662, in response to his claims of losses of over £24,000 sterling during the 1640s, he was granted a crown charter of his estates.37Scots Peerage, i. 262. The new earl of Annandale was also made a Scottish privy councillor, and, as a member of the high commission between 1664 and 1666 implemented the harsh anti-Covenanter policies favoured by John Maitland, duke of Lauderdale.38Nicoll, Diary, 409; HMC Hamilton, ii. 82. Annandale died in Edinburgh on 17 July 1672, aged 47, and his body was buried at his home parish of Johnstone. He was succeeded by his son (born in 1664 – nearly 20 years after his parents’ marriage), who became 3rd earl of Hartfell and 2nd earl of Annandale.39Scots Peerage, i. 262-4; CP.