JOHNSTON, ARCHIBALD, Lord Warriston (1611–1663), Scottish statesman, baptised at Edinburgh 28 March 1611, was son of James Johnston, a prosperous merchant there, who died on 24 April 1617. He was educated at Glasgow University under his kinsman Robert Baillie [q. v.], principal of Glasgow University, and he graduated M.A. there. His mother, Elizabeth Craig, second daughter of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton [q. v.], the feudal lawyer, is said to have been a zealous presbyterian. His sister Rachel became the wife of Robert Burnet, and was mother of the bishop. Johnston was admitted an Edinburgh advocate on 6 Nov. 1633. In 1637 he was appointed one of the five advocates to advise the committee formed to resist Charles I's attempt to force the English ritual upon the kirk. He drew up their remonstrances, and acquired great influence in their councils. He doubtless devised the plan by which each of the royal proclamations was at once followed by the reading of a ‘protestation’ and its registration with legal formalities. The earliest of several acts of the kind was on 22 Feb. 1638. After a royal proclamation at the market-cross of Edinburgh the heralds were forced to remain while Johnston read a counter-protestation respectfully but firmly worded. To Johnston was generally ascribed (Gordon, i. 33 note; Burton, vi. 183) the resolution taken at this time to revive for general signature in Scotland the confession of 1591 [see Henderson, Alexander], with the additions required by the new circumstances. These additions were framed by Henderson and Johnston (the contribution of each is specified in Rothes, Appendix, p. 210), and the document soon became known as the national covenant.
When a general assembly was allowed to meet at Glasgow on 21 Nov. 1638, Johnston was almost unanimously elected its clerk. Upon entering on his office he produced several manuscript volumes containing missing minutes of previous assemblies from the date of the Reformation, which were examined by a committee of the assembly, and pronounced to be genuine. The assembly employed Johnston to write in denunciation of the king's conduct, and at the close of its sittings Johnston was appointed procurator of the kirk, with a general control over the publications to be issued on its behalf (Stevenson, p. 347). Johnston was with Henderson specially designated to accompany the noblemen who as Scottish commissioners negotiated the pacification of Berwick on 18 June 1639. Though not a member of the Scottish parliament which met on 31 Aug. 1639, he read in it an energetic protest against its sudden prorogation (31 Aug. 1639). In the following year the convention of estates appointed an executive committee, with complete control over military operations, and authorised Johnston, as best acquainted with the position of affairs, to attend the general of the army, and to be present on all occasions with the committee (Acts of Parliament of Scotland, v. 284, &c.). On 8 Jan. 1640 they voted him a yearly allowance of one thousand merks as procurator of the kirk (ib. p. 279). Before the Scots army crossed the Tweed at Coldstream (20 Aug. 1640), Johnston, apparently on his own responsibility, wrote (23 June) the remarkable letter (printed by Oldmixon in his History of England, ‘House of Stuart,’ p. 141) asking Savile, then in London, to sound some leading English noblemen as to their willingness to aid the Scots in an invasion of England. (On the genuineness of this letter and of an alleged reply to it, see Gardiner, ix. 179–180 note.) Johnston was associated with the Scottish commissioners of estates who negotiated the treaty of Ripon (the preliminaries were signed 27 Oct. 1640), and afterwards accompanied them to London. In September 1641 the Scottish parliament formally recognised the fidelity with which Johnston had discharged the duties entrusted to him. The king, among other concessions to the covenanters, made Johnston a lord of session on 13 Nov. 1641, when he took the courtesy title of Lord Warriston (from his estate close to Edinburgh), and was knighted. Charles gave him a pension of 200l. a year. In the same month he was appointed a commissioner to treat with English commissioners for a permanent settlement of the kingdom.
As commissioner for Midlothian Johnston entered the convention of estates which met on 22 June 1643, and was on all its important commissions and committees. In the following August, on the arrival of commissioners from the English parliament, Johnston protested against a policy of neutrality (Baillie, ii. 90). He had been nominated by the general assembly of the kirk one of three laymen to represent Scotland in the general assembly of divines at Westminster, which began to meet on 1 July 1643, and he took occasionally an active part in its debates, strenuously defending presbyterianism against the independents (ib. ii. 146, and 97). He was appointed on 9 Jan. 1644 one of a special committee of four to represent Scotland in London, which with the addition of English members became the committee of both kingdoms, and supervised the military operations. As one of its members Johnston was sent on various missions to parliamentary
