Lt.-Colonel James Johnston (January, 1724 – 8 April 1800), J.P., was one of the earliest and principal Scottish merchants at Quebec following the fall of New France; of the firm Johnston & Purss. He was foreman of the first grand jury of the new British province of Quebec, justice of the peace, and colonel of artillery in the British militia. Early life Johnston was christened at Stromness, February 25, 1724. He was the second son of John Johnston (1690−1757), 3rd Laird of Outbrecks on the Orkney Mainland, and his wife Marjorie Crafts (1695−1774), daughter of John Crafts who had been an ensign in Cromwell's army before becoming a ship-owner at London. The Johnstons/Johnstones of Outbrecks (sometimes spelt Outhrecks) were a prominent Orkney family and James' father - one of the principal merchants there - had added to their land by acquiring considerable property throughout the islands at Harray, Stenness and South Ronaldsay etc., owning one-third of the town of Stromness itself. Johnston's elder brother, Joshua Johnston (1720-1794), married an heiress of the Halcro family and lived at Orphir House, becoming the first Laird of Coubister; they were the ancestors of Henry Halcro Johnston. James and Joshua's sister, Elizabeth, was the mother of James Irvine, of Quebec City. James Johnston was a cousin of Joseph Isbister (1710−1771), who in 1740 became the first Orkneyman to receive a governorship in the Hudson's Bay Company and settled in Quebec in 1760. Another of James's sisters, Katherine Johnston, had married George Geddes (1717−1791), great-grandson of Bishop George Graham. Geddes' father, David Geddes, aside from being Collector of Customs and owning a merchants bank and shipping business, also owned the first agency that supplied Orkney men for work in the Hudson's Bay Company, consisting of three quarters of their workforce in Canada. Through these connections, Johnston and his brother-in-law were in Quebec with General James Wolfe at the British Conquest of New France in 1759. He probably returned home soon afterwards, but by 1761, Johnston was renting a house in Quebec City and in July, the following year, he established a business partnership with John Purss who was to remain his partner and closest friend up until his death. Public Life at Quebec From 1762, Johnston was appointed Captain of Artillery in the British Militia, retiring with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1764, William Conyngham appointed Johnston foreman of the first Grand Jury of the