JOHNSTON, Sir WILLIAM (1773–1844), lieutenant-general, born in 1773, entered the army as ensign in the 18th foot 3 June 1791. His subsequent steps were: lieutenant 7 Jan. 1794, captain 4 April 1795, major 27 Feb. 1800, lieutenant-colonel 25 April 1808, colonel 4 June 1814, major-general 27 May 1825, lieutenant-general 28 June 1838. He served at Gibraltar until October 1793, thence went to Toulon, where he was in action [cf. O'Hara, Charles, general], and proceeded to Corsica, where he was wounded, and where he became captain in Smith's Corsican regiment. In 1797 he took part in the expedition against Tuscany, and in 1798, having returned to England, he was placed on half-pay, but saw some service during the Irish rebellion with a yeomanry corps. In 1800 he joined the 68th foot as major; in 1801 he went with his regiment on the expedition directed against the Danish and Dutch West Indies; he commanded the 68th at the siege of Flushing (August 1809), and throughout the Walcheren expedition. Johnston afterwards distinguished himself in the Peninsula, and led the 68th at Salamanca, Vittoria, and Orthez; he was wounded seriously at Vittoria, and received a medal with two clasps. On 2 June 1837 he was made K.C.B., and the colonelcy of the 68th was given to him 6 April 1838. He died at Orchard Place, Southampton, 23 Jan. 1844, leaving a widow, a son in the 8th foot, and six daughters.
Sir William Johnston, the lieutenant-general, must be carefully distinguished from Sir William Johnston (1760–1844), seventh baronet of Johnston, who was son of Sir William Johnston, sixth baronet of that ilk, and a collateral descendant of Sir John Johnston (d. 1690) [q. v.] He also entered the army and saw service in India; in 1798 he raised a regiment of fencibles, which was disbanded in 1802. From 1801 to 1806 he represented New Windsor in the House of Commons. He died at the Hague 13 Jan. 1844, leaving, with other issue by his second wife, Maria, daughter of John Bacon, a son, the eighth baronet, whose son, Sir William Johnston, became ninth baronet.
[Gent. Mag. 1844, i. 319, ii. 89; Times, 24 Jan. 1844; Hampshire Advertiser, 27 Jan. 1844; Ann. Reg.; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen.]
JOHNSTON, WILLIAM, D.D. (1800–1874), presbyterian minister, was born at Biggar, Lanarkshire, on 18 Feb. 1800. In his thirteenth year he was sent to Glasgow University, where he obtained prizes in mathematics and graduated M.A. in 1817. Through the influence of his minister, the Rev. John Brown (1784–1858) [q. v.], he entered in 1816 the Divinity Hall of the Secession Church, then taught by Dr. Lawson at Selkirk. While at Selkirk he received the freedom of the burgh along with Prince Leopold, afterwards king of the Belgians, who was then on a visit to Sir Walter Scott. In May 1821 Johnston was licensed to preach, and in August 1823 was ordained at Limekilns, a village on the Firth of Forth, about four miles from Dunfermline. In 1825 a new church was erected and a large manse was built. The Earl of Elgin and his family, who resided at Broomhall, attended the church, and Johnston enjoyed the friendship of three generations of that family. A very devoted admirer was Lady Augusta, wife of Dean Stanley, and daughter of Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin [q. v.] Johnston was minister of Limekilns for fifty years. Many presentations made to him, notably that on the occasion of his ministerial jubilee in 1873, testified to the esteem in which he was held by his parishioners. From 1847, when his denomination became the United Presbyterian Church, till his death he was convener of the committee on education, and in 1849 he was asked by the synod to become professor of theology in the island of Jamaica. In 1850 the university of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of D.D., and in 1854 he was elected moderator of synod. He was an able preacher and debater. He advocated a national system of education, was a member of the committee on union with the free church of Scotland, and warmly supported temperance and other social reforms. He died in Edinburgh in May 1874, shortly after delivering in the synod a powerful appeal in favour of disestablishment. Johnston was a good scholar, and in 1843 was nominated, together with John Eadie [q. v.], for the chair of biblical literature in the United Presbyterian Hall, but Eadie was elected. Johnston published very little. ‘A Memoir of the Rev. Robert Brown, Dunfermline,’ appeared in 1830, and articles on ‘Shetland’ in the ‘United Secession Magazine,’ 1838.
[Scotsman, 25 May 1874, by Dr. John Brown (author of Rab and his Friends); articles in the United Presb. Mag. by the Rev. T. B. Johnstone, August 1874, and by the late Professor William Graham, July 1876; Gifford's Memorials of the Life and Work of Dr. Johnston, 1876; Literary World, 2 June 1876.]
JOHNSTON, Sir WILLIAM (1802–1888), lord provost of Edinburgh, third son of Andrew Johnston, by Isabel, daughter of Archibald Keith of Newbattle, born at Kirkhill, near Penicuik, Midlothian, on 27 Oct.
