1807 he spoke in favour of an inquiry into the situation of Ireland, and made a variety of motions relative to the sale of commissions and the state of the compassionate fund preparatory to bringing his own case before the notice of the house. His election was declared void in March 1808, and he was unseated, but was returned in July 1812 on his brother accepting the Chiltern Hundreds, and again at the general election in October following. Johnstone in 1807 went to Tortola, where he hoped, through the influence of his brother Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane [q. v.], then commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands station, to obtain some lucrative appointment. He was allowed to take up his residence at the custom house, and committed various acts of fraud. In December 1807, orders having been given for the capture of the Danish islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, Johnstone was made auctioneer and agent for the captors as far as the navy was concerned. He bribed the judge of the vice-admiralty prize court of Tortola to make over the assets of the conquered islanders to the captors in prejudice of the crown, and personally obtained possession of much produce and money. On refusing to give up the property he was arrested, but was released on parole and escaped to England. There he made a good profit out of the transaction.
He next obtained a contract for furnishing the Spanish government with muskets at a stipulated price of three guineas each. He manufactured the guns at Birmingham for seventeen shillings apiece. He had agreed with the junta-general to receive his payment by an order upon the royal treasury at Vera Cruz, and a British frigate was appointed to carry him thither. During the voyage he was detected by the captain in a flagrant smuggling transaction. From several Spanish colonies he received large remittances and consignments of produce, in return for which he engaged to ship arms and other articles, but he never shipped any, and as a member of parliament successfully claimed exemption from arrest.
On 20 Feb. 1814, when false news reached the Stock Exchange of Bonaparte's death, Johnstone speculated in the funds with great success, acting as the chief of a financial conspiracy, into which he dragged his nephew Thomas, afterwards tenth earl of Dundonald (1775–1860) [q. v.] Johnstone asserted his innocence in the House of Commons and the newspapers, and threatened prosecutions against the Stock Exchange committee for defamation of character. He was tried for conspiracy in June, found guilty, but before sentence was passed fled the country. In July he was expelled from the House of Commons, and was not heard of again.
By his first wife, who died on 17 Sept. 1797, Johnstone had a son who died young, and a daughter Elizabeth. She was married on 28 March 1816 to William John, eighth lord Napier (d. 1834), and died on 6 June 1883. Johnstone married secondly, on 21 March 1803, Amelia Constance Gertrude Etienette, widow of Reymond Godet of Martinique, and only child and heiress of Baron de Clugny, governor of Guadaloupe, who was soon compelled to divorce him.
He published: 1. ‘Proceedings of the General Court-Martial in the Trial of Major John Gordon,’ 8vo, London, 1804. 2. ‘Correspondence between Colonel Cochrane Johnstone and the Departments of the Commander-in-Chief and the Judge Advocate-General from September 1803 to August 1804,’ 8vo, London, 1805. 3. ‘Defence of the Hon. Andrew Cochrane Johnstone, including a view of the Evidence produced on his Trial, to which is prefixed a Letter to the Duke of York on the present Administration of Military Law,’ &c., 8vo, London, 1805; another edit., Edinburgh, 1806. 4. ‘The Calumnious Aspersions contained in the Report of the Sub-committee of the Stock-Exchange exposed and refuted,’ 8vo, London, 1814.
[Mackenrot's Secret Memoirs; Public Characters, x. 316–20; Trial, 1814.]
JOHNSTONE, BRYCE, D.D. (1747–1805), Scottish divine, born on 2 March 1747, was the son of John Johnstone of Gutterbraes, provost of Annan. He studied at the university of Edinburgh, and was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Annan on 4 Oct. 1769. Two years afterwards he was ordained as assistant and successor to the Rev. Thomas Hamilton, minister of the church of Holywood, in the presbytery of Dumfries. On the death of Hamilton in 1772 he succeeded to the full charge of the parish, and shortly afterwards a new church was built to replace the ruinous structure that had been used as a place of worship from pre-reformation times. On 12 June 1786 the university of Edinburgh conferred the degree of doctor of divinity upon him, and he remained in the pastorate of Holywood until his death on 27 April 1805. Johnstone took a leading part in the management of ecclesiastical affairs, and was regarded as one of the prominent supporters of the popular party in the general assembly. His efforts for the improvement of agriculture in Scotland were so highly valued that they were specially recognised by the board
