Bombast And Broadsides: The Lives of George Johnstone

1. Man of War

1. Man of War Like the hero ofa novel by Sir Walter Scott, George Johnstone was ofan ancient but impoverished family of Border gentry. An ancestor, Sir Adam Johnston, had distinguished himself under the command of the Earl of Douglas at the notable Scottish victory ofSark in 1448. An elder son ofSir Adam was the founder of the famous Annandale branch of the Johnstone family, but it was from Matthew, a younger son, that the Johnstones of Westerhall, the line to which George belonged, descended. The winged spur, the heraldic device of his family, was assumed because several members, before the union of the crowns, served the Scottish king as wardens of the West Borders attempting, as their duty, to suppress the moss-troopers who ravaged the country near the boundary with England.! The family moved from Lanarkshire to Dumfriesshire in the reign of James I of England, when James Johnstone, the sixth laird of Westraw, purchased the Glendinnings estate in Eskdale in 1624 and renamed it Westerhall. John Johnstone, his great-grandson, was made a baronet of Nova Scotia on April 25, 1700. Three years earlier another James Johnstone had been born. He was destined to be the third baronet and George Johnstone's father. In 1719 the future Sir James married Barbara Murray, daughter ofthe fourth Lord Elibank. The marriage, which lasted fifty-three years, produced seven daughters and seven sons, of whom George was the fourth. He was probably educated at home, since Sir James seems to have employed resident tutors for his boys.2 But, as a cadet with almost no chance of inheriting the family title-although, against long odds, his son eventually did-George had to make his own way in the world and, at an early but not abnormally young age for the day, became a sailor. Many years later he was to tell the House ofCommons that he first went to sea in 1744, but it could have been earlier.3 When he took his lieutenant's examination on December 5,1749, he offered evidence that he had served six years, fifteen weeks, and two days at sea in the king's vessels, and a certificate proving service in the merchant marine as well. Thus he could not have begun his official naval career later than 1743 when he was thirteen years old.4 His first ship was a man-of-war commanded, we are told, by a relative. Almost certainly this kinsman was his uncle George, one ofthe Elibank Murrays, who at that time held the rank ofcaptain, and who offered a place to his nephew, the first of many instances in which Johnstone's blood relationships with the Murrays served him wel1.5 The wealthiest and most influential of the family was Patrick, the fifth Lord Elibank, who became rich through marriage to a Dutch nobleman's daughter who was ten years older than he but who owned large estates. Elibank liked his nephew George, knew many useful and distinguished men, and later worked closely with him in connection with Indian and Floridian affairs. All ofthis lay in the future. Initially, far from associating with the 2 Man ofWar great, Johnstone served his naval apprenticeship in a series of humble positions-although he was lucky enough, according to an implausible rumor current in the later eighteenth century, to earn sufficient prize money on his first voyage to make himself independent of his father.6 During his first six years on royal ships he served as able seaman, midshipman, and, on the Edinburgh, captain's servant; he saw much action and demonstrated the rash bravery which was to distinguish him throughout his life. He is supposed, for example, after serving on the Lark, to have been refused a certificate by her commander, John Crookshanks, and in consequence to have challenged him to a duel. The captain accepted and received a ball in the neck.7 The truth of this tale cannot be substantiated , but it is a fact that Johnstone served on the Lark as a midshipman for over a year and that, whereas other captains under whom he served provided certificates testifying to his competence and diligence, which Johnstone offered in support of his application for a lieutenancy, Captain Crookshanks of the Lark did not. More creditable was the bravery which Johnstone is supposed to have shown while serving under Captain Brodie on the Canterbury during the attack on Port Louis, Hispaniola, on March 8, 1747/8. It is said...