withdrawal of Mrs. Johnston from the stage, speaks highly of her face and figure, and praises greatly her Lady Randolpha Lumbercourt in the ‘Man of the World,’ and her Lady Caroline Braymore in ‘John Bull.’ She was in later years separated from her husband, outlived her reputation, and in vol. vii. of Oxberry's ‘Dramatic Biography’ is said to be no longer on the stage. A Miss Johnston appeared as a singer at the Haymarket 23 June 1823, with no great success. That she was a daughter of Johnston seems possible.
Portraits of Johnston as Norval, by Singleton, R.A., and by De Wilde (two), as well as a portrait of Mrs. Johnstone by the latter artist, are in the Garrick Club.
[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror and Dramatic Synopsis; Thespian Dict.; Dibdin's Edinburgh Stage; European and other magazines.]
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
