After a few years he resigned his Judgeship, and was twice elected to Congress from his district.  He made a Digest of the Statute Laws of South Carolina, and also left one or two volumes of cases reported by himself.  These books, particularly the latter, are still referred to as good legal authority.  He died in Camden, and has left a name cherished and honored by all those who remember his numerous virtues.

Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of that family whose name is prefixed.  Many events, of thrilling interest, connected with their revolutionary services, have, no doubt, sunk into oblivion; but enough has been presented to stimulate the rising generation to imitate their heroic example and admire their unfaltering devotion to the cause of American freedom.

COLONEL JAMES JOHNSTON.

Col.  James Johnston, one of the earliest patriots of “Tryon,” afterward Lincoln county, was born about the year 1742.  His father, Henry Johnston, was of Scottish descent.  During the many civil and ecclesiastical troubles which greatly agitated England preceding the ascent of William, Prince of Orange, to the throne in 1688, and the ruinous consequences of the defeat of Charles Edward, the “Pretender,” at the battle of Culloden, in April, 1746, a constant tide of emigration was flowing from Scotland to the northern part of Ireland, or directly to the shores of the New World, then holding forth to the disturbed population of Europe peculiar features of attractiveness, accompanied with the most alluring prospects of future aggrandizement and wealth.  Among the families who passed over during this period were some of the extensive clan of Johnstons (frequently spelled Johnstone); also, the Alexanders, Ewarts, Bells, Knoxes, Barnetts, Pattons, Wilsons, Spratts, Martins, with a strong sprinkling of the Davidsons, Caldwells, Grahams, Hunters, Polks, and many others whose descendants performed a magnanimous part in achieving our independence, and stand high on the “roll of fame” and exalted worth.

The name Johnston in Scotland embraces many distinguished personages in every department of literature.  From one of the families who came directly to America in 1722 ("Lord William Johnston”) have descended in different branches, the late General Albert Sidney Johnston and General Joseph E. Johnston—­illustrious, patriotic names the Southern people and a disinterested posterity will ever delight to honor.

The Johnstons in their native “land o’cakes and brither Scots,” had the reputation of being “heady,” strong-minded, proud of their ancestral descent, and were regarded, at times, as being rather “rebellious”—­a trait of character which, in this last respect, some of their descendants strongly manifested in the late Confederate struggle, but in accordance with the most honorable and patriotic motives.