JOHNSTON, ROBERT (1567?–1639), historian, the son of ‘an honest burgess of Edinbro',’ was born about 1567, either in Edinburgh or some part of Annandale. He was educated at the Edinburgh University, and graduated M.A. there in 1587. He is described in later life as doctor of the civil and canon law, a degree which he probably obtained at some foreign university. On the accession of James I to the English throne he seems to have left Scotland for London, in the train of a relative, Sir Robert Johnston. He had been in correspondence with Cecil in 1601 and 1602 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. i. 275, 7th Rep. i. 182–7). On 8 Dec. 1604 he was appointed clerk of the deliveries of the ordinance, on surrender by Sir Thomas Johnston (State Papers, Dom. James I, vol. x.) He is known to have held the post as late as 1618, and may have retained it till his death. In the will of his friend George Heriot [q. v.], 1623, he is described as a gentleman of London. In 1637 he was involved in a dispute with the crown concerning the execution of Heriot's will (see his own History, xx. 637, and State Papers, Dom. Car. I, ccclv. 134–5). Johnston, who was, in the words of Dempster, ‘licet non aulicus, regi acceptus,’ amassed, like Heriot, a considerable fortune. He died between 12 and 18 Oct. 1639, and is described in his will, which is printed in Constable's ‘Memoir of George Heriot,’ as ‘Robert Johnson, of the parish of St. Anne's, Blackfryars, London, esq.’ He left 1,000l. towards the maintenance of eight poor scholars in the university of Edinburgh, which Middleton, who translated the first edition of Johnston's work, magnifies into an endowment of eight fellowships at an expense of 12,000l., mentioning further donations of 4,000l. to the city of Edinburgh. The total amount actually disposed of in charities by Johnston's will was slightly over 13,000l.
Johnston left in manuscript at his death a Latin history of English and Scottish affairs from 1572 to 1628, in twenty-two books. Of these the first three were published at Amsterdam in 1642, under the title: 1. ‘Roberti Johnstoni, Scoto-Britanni, historiarum libri duo, continentes Rerum Britannicarum vicinarumque regionum historias maxime memorabiles,’ Amsterdam, 1642. The work is dedicated to Charles I. 2. So much of the above publication as related to Scottish affairs was translated from Latin into English by ‘T. M.’ (Thomas Middleton, the author of the appendix to Spotiswood's ‘History’), and published under the title, ‘The History of Scotland during the Minority of King James,’ London, 1646; reprinted Edinburgh, 1826 and 1836. 3. In 1655 the complete work appeared in folio with the title, ‘Historia Rerum Britannicarum ut et multarum Gallicarum, Belgicarum, et Germanicarum, tam politicarum quam ecclesiasticarum, ab anno 1572 ad annum 1628,’ Amsterdam, 1655.
A large manuscript ‘History of Scotland,’ in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, has been wrongly attributed to Robert Johnston. It was, according to a note in Fairfax's hand, the gift of a ‘Mr. David Johnston, burgess of Edinburgh, being the labour of his late father and grandfather.’ Robert Johnston left no issue.
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Thomson's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Irving's Lives of Scotish Writers; Tytler's Life of Henry Lord Home or Kames; Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Gentis Scotorum; Nicolson's Scottish Hist. Library; A. Constable's Life of George Heriot; Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports; State Papers, Dom.]
JOHNSTON, SAMUEL (1733–1816), American statesman and judge, born on 15 Dec. 1733, was the son of John Johnston of Dundee. His father emigrated to America in 1736, became a surveyor-general there, and acquired large landed estates. Samuel was clerk of the superior court in Chowan county from 1767 to 1772, and was also naval officer under the crown. His abilities as a lawyer and politician won him admission on the popular side to the assembly of 1769. In 1773 he became one of the standing committee of inquiry and correspondence, was an active member of the first two provincial congresses, and presided over the third and fourth. On 3 Aug. 1775 he was made chairman of the provincial council; in September following he was chosen treasurer for the north district of North Carolina; during 1781–2 he was a member of the continental congress, and in 1788–9 governor of the state, presiding over the convention which rejected the federal constitution, though he himself supported it with all his influence. The measure was adopted by the convention of 1789, over which he again presided. He was a United States senator from 1789 to 1793, and judge of the supreme court from February 1800 to November 1803. In 1815 New Jersey College conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He died near Edenton, North Carolina, on 18 Aug. 1816.
[Drake's Dict. of Amer. Biog. p. 493; Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen, p. 243.]
