Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

TO THE Fir.ST YOLUi^IE.
THE DETATLEJj MEMOIES, 1170-1 721.'-
The present History of iLe JoLusloues of Johustonc aud Earls aud ilarquises
of Annaudale consists of two volumes. The iirst volume cobfains detailed
Memoirs of the Jobustones of Jolnistonc fjom JoLu theij."i'iist known
ancestor, in the twelfth century, to his lineal male descendant, Y>"illiani, tlie
tirstr ilarquis of Annaudale, who died in the year 1721. Thcae detailed
Memoirs embrace a period of five ceatra-ies and a half, aud eightcau gi:neia-
tions of the Johnstone family.
Tu the earlier generations these dciailed Memoirs are nccessavily veiy
brief owing to the scantiness of materials for minute historical and bio-
graphical notices of individuals v,'ho flourished from the twelfth to the
fourteenth centuries, in tlie succeediiig generations the charters and other
rrriiniments become more abundant. But towards the end of the sixteentli
century the unl'ortunnle feuds which then raged between the ri^•al houses of
Maxwell and Johnstone led to tlie vvilful destructiorr by fire of aU tlic charier
munimunts of the Johnstones then preserved in their ancient Tov.xr of Loch-
wood. Such a loss could ue\er be replaced, and the proofs of the existence
of the eaiEest icnown Johnstones are only to be tiaced in the contemporary
charters granted by the Bruces of Aunandale to wliicu the Johnstojies were
frequent witnesses.
1 Vol. i. i>p. i-ci.c:;xii.