James Johnstone (1719 – c. 1791), also known as Chevalier de Johnstone or Johnstone de Moffatt, was the son of an Edinburgh merchant. He escaped to France after participating in the 1745 Rising; in 1750, he was commissioned in the colonial army and served in French North America. His military career was undistinguished and he remained a Lieutenant after ten years of service. Following the loss of Quebec in 1760, he returned to France and left the army. There are few details on his later life and he is thought to have died sometime after 1791. He is best remembered for his Memoirs of the rebellion in 1745 and 1746, first published in 1820. Life James Johnstone was born 25 July 1719, only son of Jeremy Boone Johnstone, an Edinburgh merchant; his mother was a distant relative of Lady Jane (or Jean) Douglas (ca 1698-1753), later the centre of a famous inheritance case known as the Douglas Cause. He had two sisters; the elder, Cecilia (ca 1715-1746), married John Rollo (1708-1783), later 6th Lord Rollo. His other sister Jean married Hugh Leslie of Dalkeith and their great-grandson purchased Johnstone's manuscripts in 1870. There is no record of Johnstone ever marrying or having children. Career There are few details of Johnstone's early life, apart from those given in his autobiography but he admits to being a poor student, 'given to dissipation and extravagance.' He had a difficult relationship with his father, but was indulged by his mother and Lady Jane, who lent him money. In 1738, he persuaded his father to send him to Saint Petersburg, where he stayed with his mother's uncle, James Hewitt, an expatriate Scot and merchant. Another uncle, Gustav Otto Douglas (1687-1771), was a Russian general, who was born in Sweden, then changed sides after being captured at Poltava in 1709. Douglas arranged a commission for Johnstone in the Russian military but his father threatened to disinherit him if he accepted and after a period in London, he returned to Edinburgh in 1740. His sister's marriage into the Rollo family connected Johnstone to the small circle of Jacobite gentry in Perthshire that supplied over 20% of the rebel army in the 1745 Rising. Robert, 4th Lord Rollo (1679-1758) participated in the 1715 Rising, although his son Andrew Rollo (1703-1765) served with the British army in Flanders during the War of the Austrian Succession. Johnstone joined the Jacobites