Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

JUS .MARIUACJ'; WITJI-JAN'l'.T SKToX. XV
(ii-'.uoiiil, broLli'.'vs of tlie Euil of J.>uuglas, were ikfuateJ. It is :>aid bj- the
C'lironicles thai Johnstone ^vas liiniself present; \)ut it could not have been
Adam, the subject of this Memoir, as lie died before this battle took plaoo.
The Steward of Annandale's account, given in ou 17tli July ]i:ib, shows
that tlie maills of Indienement and Johnbtounc-tencn^ient brlongtd to tlio
(howu for one term up to Whilsnnday, owing to the death of Adam of
Johnstone of that ilk.'
Sir liichard Mailland of Letldngton, who was bom in 1490, and whose
jnotliev was a Seton, wrote a brief account of the Seton family. He mentions
tlie romantic courtship and marriage of Adarn Johnstone and Janet Seton.
Mailland's qnaiut vernacular, tliongb inaccurate, is -worth Cjuoting:
"Lord Gcorgn Setoun, tlie first of tliat name, Kucceid't to Lord Johne, liis
father, being hot nyne yeirs of age. In the rucin tyuic, the Lord Criclitoau being
greit in the Court, and hairing the castell of Ediidiurgli in his hands, gat tlie
said Lord George, and keipit liini in the said ca-stell. In the niein tynre, the
laird of Jolmstouu in Anandaill desyrit' the said Lord George liis mother in
n;ariage, quha, amang vther talk and communicatiouii, schew to the said laird
that sho was euill contentit that hir said onlie sono was in the lord Crichtoun
hi.5 handis, and )iad great suspitiou thairof, becaus the said Lord George liad Ijot
onlie ane sister, cpdiilk was narrest air to his haill laudis failzeing of him. The
laird of Johnstoun perccauing that the said Lord George his mother wald haue
liad hir son out of the Crichtoun liis handis, he wailit his tymc, and maid sic
iiioyan iu the castell, that he gat the said George furth of the said castell, and
convoyit him secreitly to his place callit LochwooJ in Annandaill, quhair he was
Weill nurishit ane lang tyrne. The said lady heiring tell that the said laird had
convoyit hir sone cut of the lord Crichtoun his handis, sho was contentit to
marie him, and bair to him moiiic sones, quhilk war all brether to Lord George
on the mother syde, of the quhilk the eldest was callit Gilbert, qidia was efter
ane valiant man, and maid knight. This Sir Gilbert marcit the heretrix of
Klphinstoun, and was the first of (lie surname of Johnstouns."^
\\'liatever be the basis of this story, it is contradicted in several details
by various circumstances. Adam Johnstone did apparently marry the
' H\clif(iiier Knlls, vol. vi. pp. xx.vii, 62.
' .Sir l!icli:iiil MaitlaiuVs Gcnealoijy fit" the House a:ut Siunaiiie of Setoun, IS.'sO, p. 28.
—