Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/147

 JOHNSTONE

JOHNSTONE

orary degree of LL.D. in 1875. He is the author of: The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston (1878); The Prototype of Hamlet (1890); The Johnstons of Salisbury (181)7), and the poems Pictures of the Patriarchs, My Garden TraWc, and Seekers after God, besides numerous addresses on educational and social subjects. He died at the home of Ins daugliter, ]\Irs. Henry St. George Tucker, in Lexington. Va., July 17, 1899.

JOHNSTONE, Edward Robert, editor, was born at Utica, N.Y., April 30, 1849; son of the Rev. Mervin E. and Julia (Waters) Johnstone; great grandson of Gen. Ammi Doubleday, and a descen<lant of the Rev. Robert Johnstone, who came to the United States in 1683 from the north of Ireland, and was a direct descendant of Betsey Fleetwood, daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Edwin Robert Johnstone was graduated from Dickinson college, Pa., in 1870, and at once engaged in newspaper work as a reporter and correspondent for various papers. He was in the Indian cam- paign against Chief Joseph, 1877; and against Sit- ting Bull, 1880-81; was city editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1881-92, correspondent for the same in the Riel rebellion in 1885, and city and county assessor of St. Paul, Minn., 1892-95. He was con- nected with the Associated Press in New York, 1897-98, and in charge of a fleet of dispatch boats in the Spanish-American war at Key West in Havana, at the Santiago blockades and in Porto Rico from Februaiy to August, 1898. He became managing editor of The Minneapolis Times, Sept. 1, 1898. and editor-in-cliief, May 1, 1900.

JOHNSTONE, Gabriel, governor of the prov- ince of North Carolina, was born in Scotland in 1699; grandson of James Johnstone, second earl of Annandale. He was a graduate of, and pro- fessor of oriental languages in the University of St. Andrews, and subsequently political editor of the Craftsman of London, England. He im- migrated to the province of Noi'th Carolina about 1730, and settled and made large purchases of land near Wilmington. He was made gov- ernor of the province in 1734, as successor to George Barrington, the first governor under the Crown, 1729-34, and lie served as such until his death. In 1746 Governor Johnstone displeased the people of the northern sections of the state known as Albemarle county, by proroguing the general assembly convened at New Berne, to meet at Wilmington on Nov. 18, 1746. For eighty years the general assembly had met either at New Berne or Edenton and the thirty- one representatives from Albemarle refused to appear at Wilmington. The twenty-two mem- bers for Bath, the southern county of the prov- ince, assembled, and the general assembly, so constituted, was recognized by Governor John- stone and at once proceeded to reduce the repre-

sentation for the precincts of Albemarle county from five burgesses from each precinct to two, so as to give a majority to the less populous county of Bath. The people of Albemarle county re- belled and refused to appear at musters, attend courts or pay taxes, and this condition continued for eight years. Not a single representative from the Albemarle section during all these years would change his vote in favor of two burgesses from a precinct, and led by Benjamin Hill and others in 1748 or 1749 they preferred three different interests against Governor John- stone to the home authorities. The Hill charges were: that no quorum was present when the ob- noxious law was passed; and that it was passed by surprises, fraud and trickery. The validity of the act was referred to the attorney and solic- itor-general of England. On Dec. 1, 1750, he reported: " The act was passed by management, precipitation and surprise when few members were present and seemed to be of such nature and tendency, and to have such effect and opera- tion, that the governor ought not to have assented to them," and the obnoxious law was repealed, April 8, 1754, a solitary instance in the history of the government of provinces by the Crown where the government sustained rebels struggling for constitutional liberty. The want of success in the administration of Governor Johnstone seemed to be his extreme aristocracy and failure to mingle with or recognize the social equality of the people he was sent to govern. His brother, Gilbert, having espoused the cause of the Pre- tender, was wounded at the battle of Culloden and was forced to flee to America, settling in North Carolina. Governor Johnstone died in Chowan county, N.C., in August, 1752.

JOHNSTONE, Samuel, governor of North Car- olina, was born in Dundee, Scotland, Dec. 15, 1733; son of John Johnstone and nephew of Ga- briel Johnstone, governor of the province of North Carolina, 1734-52. Samuel's father im- migrated to the province of North Carolina in 1736, and settled near Edenton, where Samuel was educated and where he practised law, and served as naval officer and clerk of Chowan super- ior court, 1767-72. He was a member of the house of burgesses, 1769; a mem- ber of the first and second and moderator of the third and fourth provincial congresses, 1774-76; chairman of the provincial council of August, 1775; treasurer of the northern part of the prov- ince, 1775;and a delegate to the Continental con- gress, 1780-82. He was a delegate to the first two conventions called to consider the adoption of the Federal constitution, 1777-78, and president of tlie