JOHNSTONE, FRANCIS [SSNE 2736]

Surname: JOHNSTONE, JONSTON, JOHNSTON, JOHNSTOWN, JOHNSTOUN
First name: FRANCIS, FRANS
Title/rank: COLONEL
Nationality: SCOT
Social status: OFFICER

Text source

Francis Johnstoun entered service as a lieutenant in Ernst Creutz' Nyland regiment in 1624 and thereafter became a captain in Kristoffer Assarsson Mannersköld's regiment from Abo in 1626. He was captain in Åbo area regiment in 1629 and also quartermaster in 1630. By 1634 he became a lieutenant colonel with the Karelia infantry regiment. In 1638 he transferred as lieutenant colonel with the Viborg area infantry regiment where he became colonel and chief between 1646-1656. The Kammarkollegium refers to him on 2 December 1645, and again on 2 December 1647 when it was noted that he should receive his salary for 1645. However on 12 January 1648 Johnstoun approached the Kammarkollegium regarding his outstanding monies. In the National Register of Archives of Scotland [NRAS], there is listed a testament for this man dated 20 June 1657. He must have died around this date as by 1663, Mary Jonston, is noted as the daughter of one late 'Commander Francis Jonston'

The Will of Colonel Francis Johnstone in Riga
Francis and Edward Johnstone were closely related, possibly cousins, given the references to young Eward as blood relative, but not nephew. In some of the documents Francis does talk of his brother’s children as ‘nephews' suggesting that they were closer in blood than Eward. I also found it extremely interesting that Eward was to benefit from the main estate in Riga, but that once he was dead it was to benefit the closest blood heirs from Scotland. Again this seems to put Eward out to the degree of at least cousin or first cousin once removed.

With regard to the identification of chattels and portraits, there are only three images described. Two of those are the miniatures on the chain presented by Karl/Charles X. The third is of General Thorsten Stålhandske. The reason for Francis Johnstone possessing this portrait is surely because it came from the estate of Edward Johnstone (senior) who was brother-in-law of General Stålhandske. The General was always very supportive of the Scottish element in Swedish society due to the fact that he was the step-son of Major Robert Guthrie and therefore a half-brother of Katarina Johnstone (nee Guthrie). Major Robert Guthrie married Catharina Bertilsonsdotter (or Katarina Lydiksdotter), widow of Thorsten Svensson Stålhandske, father of the general. Guthrie and Bertilsonsdotter then had their daughter, Catherine /Katarina (d.1650). On the death of her father Katarina inherited Tervik near Borgå (which later passed to Eward). She first married, in 1628, the Scottish officer John Robertson Lichton who died in 1636. She subsequently married, sometime after 1642, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Johnstone who died in October 1649.After her death in 1650, the portrait of her half-brother would have gone to Francis, along with the other goods of the house, as he was guardian of Eward.

One figure not noted in the documents is William Johnstone of Bishopcleuch. It was he, along with James 2^nd Earl of Annandale, who supported Mary Johnstone’s claims to the Scottish Privy Council that she was the rightful heir of Francis Johnstone in the 1660s when factors were dispatched from Scotland to secure her inheritance.

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Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll,1624/5,8; 1626/7,9; 1629/22; 1630/1,21; 1631/10,11; 1632/8,9; 1634/9,11; 1635/1; 1636/12,13; 1638/16; 1639/12; 1640/11,12; 1641/10; 16422/9; 1643/11,15; 1644/13,17; 1645/15,16,18; 1646/11; 1647/11-13; 1648/15; 1649/9; 1650/6; 1651/4,9,10; 1654/5; 1655/4,6; Swedisk Krigsarkiv, katalog over rullor, vol.4, p.1587 and vol.6, p.53; Several letters can be found in 'Krigskollegium Kancelliet; Adressatregistratur till Krigskollegiets Registratur 1631-1654' dated between 23/10/1633 to 11/8/1654; See also Kammarkollegium, cards no. 112 and no.167 and 169; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3rd series, vol. I (1661-1664), pp.493-494, c.1663; National Register of Archives of Scotland [NRAS], 2171/bundle 126 (c.1650-1670), testament of Col. Francis Johnston, 20 June 1657; Otto Donner, A brief sketch of the Scottish families in Finland and Sweden (Helsingfors, 1884), p.30; Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer i svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.230, 240.

Service record

SWEDEN, CREUTZ, ERNST: Arrived 1624-01-01, as LIEUTENANT; Departed 1625-12-31, as LIEUTENANT; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, MANNERSKOLD'S FINNISH, FINLAND: Arrived 1626-01-01, as CAPTAIN; Departed 1633-12-31, as QUARTERMASTER; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, ABO KARELIA INFANTRY REGIMENT, FINLAND: Arrived 1634-01-01, as LT. COLONEL; Departed 1637-12-31, as LT. COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, VIBORG AREA REGIMENT, FINLAND: Arrived 1637-01-01, as LT. COLONEL; Departed 1645-12-31, as LT. COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, FRANCIS JOHNSTOUN'S VIBORG: Arrived 1646-01-01, as COLONEL; Departed 1657-06-20, as COLONEL + CHIEF; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY