James J. Annandale Marquess of (1730)

James Johnstone was the eldest son of William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and his wife Sophia. William was prominent in Scottish politics and in 1701 was granted the additional title of 1st marquess of Annandale. In 1716 Sophia died and two years later William married Charlotta Van Lore, only child of John Vanden Bempdé of Hackness Hall. They had 2 children, George and John, the latter born after his father’s death in 1721.

In 1708, James successfully stood for election as an MP with his father’s support but was subsequently disbarred, as the eldest son of a peer, from assuming his seat in Parliament. After this, relations between William and James, already strained, became virtually hostile. One reason for this arose from James asking for an allowance so that he could travel abroad for 2 or 3 years. William refused, maintaining that he himself was stretched financially, and he in turn asked his son to renounce an entail on the estate which had been insisted upon at his marriage – a proposal to which James strongly objected. Eventually, in 1712, James was able to travel to Holland on a diplomatic mission and subsequently received funds from the Earl of Oxford to travel in France and Italy.

On William’s death in 1721, James inherited the family titles and estate. The following year he was a candidate in the election of Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster but was unsuccessful. After this, James seems to have abandoned any thought of further involvement in public life. Instead he spent much of his time travelling in Italy, where he assembled a considerable collection of art and antiquities and where he died in 1730.

James was very antagonistic to his step-mother and her children and seems to have resented her remarrying to Col. John Johnstone of Westerhall, by whom she had 2 further children. In his will, James left both his estate and his peerages to his sister Henrietta, who had married Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun, and to her descendants. However the titles could not be inherited in this way and they passed instead to his step-brother George. Henrietta did however inherit the personal estate of her brother, including his art collection.