James Johnstone ca.1687-1730
James JOHNSTONE or JOHNSTON, 2nd Marquis of Annandale ca.1687-1730
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Biographical Note
Son of William Johnstone, 1st Marquis of Annandale, from whom he inherited the title and family estates in 1721; before then, he was very much at odds with his father and cut off from his financial support. He was MP for Dumfriesshire 1708, and held some Scottish administrative offices. Any political ambitions he had were blighted first by the family dispute, and later by suspicions of Jacobite sympathies; he spent much of his last two decades in Italy, where he sources many paintings for a significant art collection.
Books
Johnstone used an engraved armorial bookplate, predating his inheritance of the Marquessate (Franks 16625/*476); the extent and disposition of his library is not known. He did not marry, and sought (only partly successfully) to cut his male relations out of his will, and to leave much of his estate to his sister Henrietta, Countess of Hopetoun.
Sources
- History of Parliament.
- Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.