Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

TO DKFEXl) THK LANDS OF ]1.\KU1LLS AND OTIIKUS, 117G. xxi
iiriiv iiiiporlaiit baltlcs wliicli liave \h-en iioticeil, liacl bis sliare of smaller
action? cr law-suits willi his nei'.Oiliours. He was eugaged in H7j in a
Irtw-duit, in the supreiue civil cuiu t, with John, flrsL Lord Cavlyle, abo\it
tlij- lands of Upper Dryfe. Lord Carljde claimed 12 rueiks yeaily for nine
years, during which jieriod he alleged the chief had -wrongfully occupied the
lands. The court ordered .Johnstone to remove from tlie lands and to pay
I.f.;d Carlyle for his wrongful occupation since the decease of liis brother,
\Villiani Johnstone, and for damages, 40 meits. Tower was given to distrain
the gdods of Johnstone for the amount, but it was still unpaid in 1503.^
in the following year, liTG, Johnstone by special mandate from the
king conjoined with Sir l^bert Crichton of Santiuhar and others in defending
IMward Livingston of Bowcastle against an act of molestation by AVilliam,
third Lord Crichton. Livingston, since tlie death of his brother twenty-two
years before, had held the lands of Ivlinn^ygap, Crunzeanton, Jlollin and
Uahill (Eaehills) ; but now Lord Crichton vexed and troubled him and his
tenants in their possession, and deinanded rent from t!ie latter. Johnstone
and the others named were to secure Livingston iu his possessions, and see
that his tenants paid their rents to him.- The royal interposition on
belialfof Livingston, however, docs not appear to have been effectual, as in
January 14 IS William, Lord Crichton, granted the lands to his own brother,
(.iavin Crichton.^
On 11th June HVS, Johnstone is named as a probable witness in a
question between Walter Tweedie of Durmmclzier and ^danr Cockburu of
Scraling as to the possession and value of a silver cup i,\'ith a double-gilt
.silver cover, which Coekbuv;i had pledged for twenty meiks.* In the
following March Johnstone himself was a defendant in regard to a claim
made against him by Archibald Carruthers of Mouswald, apparently his
' Act.-i Auclitovuiii, p. 40 ; Annandale ^ Rcgistnim Miigni Sigilli, vol. ii. Xo.
IVi.r.-igc- Kvidence, 137(j, p. lio. 1-1.'!0.
' Uoyal mandatp, 20th Oct.iber 147G,
I'liutL-il in Miuutes of Evideai.e, p. 31. Acta Auditorum, p. Go.