James Johnstone, 2nd Marquess of Annandale

This portrait is probably of the 2nd Marquess of Annandale, though it is possibly of his father.

James Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and 2nd Marquess of Annandale, was born about 1687-8 and was the eldest son of William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and 1st Marquess of Annandale, by his first wife Sophia Fairholm. He succeeded his father in 1721.

After the Act of Union he was returned at the 1708 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for both Dumfriesshire^[1] and Linlithgowshire,^[2] but he was disqualified from both seats on grounds of being the eldest son of a Scottish peer.^[3]

He spent most of his adult life traveling in Italy where he amassed a great collection of art and antiquities. In 1726 he attempted to legally prevent his half-brothers from inheriting his peerages and estates and directed that these should pass to his sister Henrietta Hope, Countess of Hopetoun, and her descendants. However, this attempt was only partly successful for, when he died in Italy in 1730 aged 42, only his Scottish lands and his art collection passed to Henrietta, while his peerages (which could not be lawfully alienated in the way he intended) passed to his half-brother George who succeeded as 4th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and 3rd Marquess of Annandale.

His body was returned from Italy and buried in Westminster Abbey. His portrait hangs today at Hopetoun House near Edinburgh.

References

• The Complete Peerage 1959 (sub Annandale)
• Burke's Peerage 1999 (sub Annandale and Hartfell).