Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

xiv ADAM JiiJlNsToNK OF .loHNST-UM::, Min-N.ji.
(Ml tlie li.iiik.s of the liver S;'.ili. To clierl: llieii- iulviiiiee, llugli, Earl cit
Onooiid, brotlicr of the Earl of ]Jouglas, and Siprne gentlpiiicii of the
iieighbouiliood mustered an army of -1000 men, and, though inferior in
uumhers, succeeded in comphAely defeating the English. Two thousand of
the enemy were slain and their leaders taken }irisonei-3, to the enrichment,
it is said, of their captors.^
Dnring the years followirig, from 1449 to 14o3, there v\-ere frequent
renev.-als of truce v.-ith England, and on each occasion Adam Johnstone of
Johnstcr.c is named as one of the conservators of the peace on tlie Scottish
border. The Castle of Lochmaben, then held bj' John Carruthers of Mous-
wald, as captain, was taken from him in the j'ear 1454 by the treachery of
the porter, apparently by Herbert Johnstone, v.dio took Jorcible possession of
the fortress, which King James the Second allovred the captors to keep "to
liis pirofit," much to tlie general astonishment." This seizure is said to have
taken place in August 1454, and the statement is corroborated by the
E\ehc(j^aer JJolls, which show that Carruthers received his salary, as keeper,
up till July 1454, wliile, for the next twelve montlis, Herbert Johnstone
acted as captain, and was paid the fees. It is diflicult to explain this
sudden seizure of a ruyal castle from its authorised keepei', and the subse-
quent condonement of the offence by the king, but the expression in the
chronicle that it was for tlie royal profit suggests thai the Jolmstones may
have acted with the connivance of the king, who may then have been
meditating the attack upon the power of the IJouglases ^Yhich he car-iicd out
in tlie following ytar.
Tliat the Johnstones were attached to the royal party in the struggle
with the Douglases is stated by l)a\'id Hume of Godseroft, the historian of
the Douglases, who asserts that the Laird of Johnstone took j'art in the
battle of Arkinholm, on 1st jNfay 1155, where the Earls of ^fora}- and
' Asloaii MS., 1.S1. IS, .32 ; the mauiiscript calls Iheiu "tho lard of Jlion.stoutiis t\v;i .sonnis."