partially dismasted, and was not in condition to put to sea; and Johnstone, instead of pursuing the retreating enemy, hauled to the wind to return to the bay. This proved the work of some days; but as soon as he had anchored, he placed Captain Evelyn Sutton [q. v.] of the Isis under arrest. Sutton desired that he might be tried by court-martial; but Johnstone replied that there was then no time, alleging the necessity of putting to sea at once. Sutton therefore remained a prisoner, though the squadron did not sail till 30 April.
On 9 July Johnstone had intelligence from a Dutch prize that Suffren had arrived in Simon's Bay on 21 June, and had landed five hundred men for the defence of Cape Town. This was considered to render the proposed attack unadvisable; but as five Dutch East Indiamen, richly laden, were reported to be lying unprotected in Saldanha Bay, Johnstone determined to seize on them as a partial equivalent. On 21 July the English squadron stood into the bay; the Dutchmen forthwith ran their ships on shore, set them on fire, and made their escape. The boats of the squadron immediately boarded four of the ships, extinguished the flames, and towed them off. The fifth was burning too fiercely, and she presently floated and drifted towards the English ships. But under the personal command of Johnstone the boats succeeded in grappling her, and so towing her outside. She blew up within ten minutes of their casting her off.
After this, the Indiamen, transports, and several ships of the squadron under orders for the East Indies parted company; the rest with the prizes were sent home from St. Helena. Johnstone himself, hoisting his broad pennant on board the Diana frigate, went to Lisbon, where he married. On his return to England he was placed on half-pay, and resumed his seat in parliament, this time as member for Lostwithiel, for which he had been elected in 1781. His attacks on Lord Howe, and his criticisms on the relief of Gibraltar, however, fell flat. In 1783 he was chosen a director of the East India Company; and in the election of 1784 was returned to parliament for Ilchester. About this time Captain Sutton came home in the Isis, and, being honourably acquitted by a court-martial, brought an action against Johnstone for false and malicious imprisonment, and obtained a verdict giving him 5,000l. damages. In a new trial an appeal was dismissed; in a further trial the verdict was reversed, but being brought before the House of Lords was again confirmed. Johnstone, who for the last two years had been a confirmed invalid (see his letter to Warren Hastings, 6 Oct. 1785, Addit. MS. 29169, f. 56), died at Bristol on 24 May 1787 (European Magazine, xi. 375), aged 57 (Burke, Baronetage; Foster, Baronetage), and the money which Sutton was awarded in the law courts was never paid. By his wife, Charlotte Dee, Johnstone left one son, John Lowther Johnstone, who succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his uncle, Sir William Johnstone-Pulteney, Johnstone's elder brother, in 1805, and himself died in 1811.
Johnstone is often spoken of as ‘a noted duellist,’ but only three duels are named, of which one was bloodless, one is doubtful, and one fought when he was a mere boy. It has been said that he challenged Wilkes (Trevelyan, Early History of C. J. Fox, 1st edit., pp. 166, 347), but the story seems to have sprung out of his ‘civil’ letter to the ‘North Briton’ and his assault on Mr. Brooke. He used to be commonly styled ‘Governor’ Johnstone, though with very little reason; he is, even now, sometimes described as a politician, with less. That he was commodore and had command of a squadron was unfortunately true; he seems to have had courage, but was without self-restraint, temper, or knowledge.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 494; Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs, v. 117, 312–28; Laughton's Studies in Naval History, p. 104; An Appeal to the Public in behalf of George Johnstone, esq., Governor of West Florida, in answer to the North Briton Extraordinary, and in consequence of other matters not taken notice of in that extraordinary publication, 8vo, 1763; Blake's Remarks on Commodore Johnstone's Account of his Engagement with a French squadron … in Port Praya Road, in the Island of St. Jago, 2nd edit. 8vo, 1782, with an additional letter and plan of the bay; Letters which passed between Commodore Johnstone and Captain Evelyn Sutton in 1781 with respect to bringing Captain Sutton to Trial, 8vo, n.d.; Considerations on the Question now in litigation between Commodore Johnstone and Captain Sutton, 8vo, n.d.; The Speeches of the Judges of the Court of Exchequer upon granting a new trial in the case of Captain Evelyn Sutton against Commodore Johnstone, on the 30th day of June, 1785; A Letter to Lord Viscount Howe, first Lord of the Admiralty, on the subject of a late determination at the Cock-pit in a Prize Cause, 8vo, 1787. His letters to Warren Hastings (Addit. MSS. 29168 f. 309, 29169 f. 56, 29193 f. 232) and to Wilkes (30873, f. 4) contain some interesting and curious matter.]
JOHNSTONE, JAMES HOPE, chief Earl of Hopetoun (174I-I8I6). [See Hope, James.]
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