Sir Frederick George Johnstone 7th Bart.

1. The son of Sir John Lowther Johnstone, 6th Bart., of Westerhall, Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire, Scotland and Charlotte Gordon (c. 1785-1845) of Cluny, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

   His great-uncle was Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, 5th Bart., lawyer, property developer and politician, who became one of the richest men in Britain. He amassed a huge fortune in America and was a property developer in Britain, America and the West Indies, partly as a consequence of his marriage to Frances (1728?–1782), daughter and heir of Daniel Pulteney MP, (1682-1731) (and the adoption of the surname Pulteney). He bought the burgh of Weymouth and sat in seven successive Parliaments. His only child married Sir James Murray 1794, inherited the Pulteney estates and was created Countess of Bath. Sir William Johnstone died 1805. His baronetcy, the Westerhall estate in Scotland, the borough of Weymouth (‘a source both of wealth and of political influence’), and the extensive lands in America, inherited by his nephew, Sir John Lowther Johnstone.

2. Charlotte Gordon, his mother (and widow of John Lowther Johnstone) subsequently married RIchard Weyland (1780 -1864); Elizabeth Joanna Weyland (c1825-1886), daughter of Charlotte Gordon and Richard Weyland married James Walter Grimston, 2nd Earl Verulam.

3. Married Maria Craven (26 June 1815-20 October 1858), Auchincruive, St. Quivox, Ayrshire, Scotland, 24 October 1840. She was the daughter of William Craven, Earl of Craven (1770-1825) and Louisa Brunton, Countess of Craven (1785-1860). Their twin sons, born 5 August 1841, were Sir Frederick John William Johnstone (1841-1913) and George Charles Keppel Johnstone (1841-1912). Frederick George Johnstone was killed in a riding accident. Sir Frederick John William Johnstone, the 8th baronet was, like his father, a racehorse owner and Conservative MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, as his father had been, from 1874 to 1885.

1. M. J. Rowe, W. H. McBryde, ‘Pulteney , Sir William, fifth baronet (1729–1805)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 3 Dec 2012; Electric Scotland

2. History of Parliament Online, accessed 27 March 2016.

3. Family Search, accessed 3 December 2012; The Peerage. The Times, 12 May 1841.

We are grateful to Ruth Hayward for her assistance with compiling this entry.