[From scans provided by Sue Davis of notes typed up in 1931 by Walter Johnston excerpted from "memorials" written by Fanny Johnston in or about 1875, and based also on her father's notes. Notation at top of first page: "Memorials Vol. I page 35." The typed pages were sent with a cover letter from James Ambler Johnston at Richmond to Joseph A. Turner at Hollins, Virginia, on October 7, 1931. I have here cleaned up the typing (cramped spacing, etcetera) but kept spelling as in the original. This is my rough, annotated transcription. In this, I'm aiming to emulate medieval librarians working from ancient scrolls, copying out important texts for wider circulation and preservation. There is a copy of the original letter and typed notes at Historic Sandusky (Charles Johnston's residence in Lynchburg, Virginia, before he relocated to Botetourt Springs). There may be a copy held by Hollins University and another in one of the Richmond repositories.]
The next son was Edward William. He married first a Miss Costar, step-daughter of Monsieur Villagrand -- cousin Estelle as we called her. For two years we lived in their family at the Botetourt Springs and all that part of our history will come with the years 1840-41; but I will write what I can of Cousin Edward here, along with that is recorded of his father's children, rather than place it later.
He [Edward] was an excellent scholar, speaking French necessarily in his family as constantly and correctly as English, and also Spanish and Italian with the literature of all which he was perfectly familiar. He was never successful, however in any thing in the way of a profession, I believe, having been at different times engaged in various callings.
At one time he had a bookstore in Columbia[,] S.C. and father was employed by him there when he first began to earn his own living. I have often tell him tell of the withering scorn which cousin Edward criticised his pronunciation of 'Italian', as if it 'Eyetalian' and I'd not think I ever heard the word mispronounced, as it almost invariably is, without thinking of that.
He also had a boarding school for girls at Liberty [aka Bedford] for a short while, in which aunt Mary expected to have had a place as assistant teacher after she was left a widow the first time, and was prevented by the failure of her eyes, caused by using them too soon after a serious attack of illness, in her anxiety to study and prepare herself for the place. She was obliged to give the thing up entirely, as the trouble was so serious as to threaten total blindness, and she never fully recovered use of her eyes, although Frank, her son, after he made a specialty of the eye in his practice, assured her that the defect was a focal one altogether, and is she had had proper glasses at the time of the first failure of her eyes they could have been restored entirely.
Cousin Edward moved his school from Liberty to Botetourt Springs, but I do not know how long he taught there. Mrs. Sorrel (Letty Watts), Mrs. Wm. Watts (Mary Allen), (Mrs. Washington) Sue Peyton, Lizzie Peyton and many contemporaries of theirs were pupils of his there.
Monsieur and Madame Villagrand, the parents of Cousin Estelle, lived in the house adjoining ours when we lived there and I remember perfectly their speaking French and my learnings [sic] some of the words which I have never forgotten, either their meaning nor their pronunciation, though I was only four or five years old at the time.
Father [Frederick] assisted cousin Edward in the school, and Mother had some duties connected with the pupils, but they found time to learn French, and to speak it quite well with the Villagrands who were great admirers of theirs.
I have a letter now marked 'E' from Mad. V. to Mother in French. They admired and loved Cousin Edward Wm., very much, and I have been accustomed to hear her speak of his opinion and advice on all literary subjects with the greatest deference, especially as to the education of children, which she tried to carry out a good deal on his plans, as far as she could. The "Dictionaire des Difficultes de la langue Francais" [Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue française] which is in my possession was one of his books, and "Crabbe's Dictionary of General Knowledge" was also his. The remains of the old John Gilpin pitcher was given her by cousin Edward, and I have seen it on their table.
After the school at the Springs, which I think was a failure financially, Cousin Edward went to Washington where his wife died. He was engaged on the editorial staff of "The National Intelligencer," an old time Whig journal of great weight and power in its day, and wrote a great deal over the signature 'Il Secretario' and with such grace and pungency as gave it fame in the whole country, though I do not know whether the subjects which exercised his pen were chiefly literary or political -- both I think.
In after years he satire became famous as a newspaper writer in some contest with Daniel, the Editor of the "Richmond Examiner" who was noted for the cutting and bitter style of his paper. I think matters came to quite a serious point between them and there was either an actual or threatened challenge in the case in the end.
He went to Louisville and married a Mrs. Woolly of Kentucky and I do not know anything at all of his life after leaving Virginia. He died on the same day that his wife did, and I have heard that her daughter was married a very short time before their death, the ceremony taking place in their presence one in one room and one in the other of two parlors with folding doors between the couple standing in the doorway. Mrs. Woolly, his second wife, was in some way connected with the Preston family either by blood or by marriage. There were no children by either marriage by Ed. Wm.
[James Markham Ambler Johnston (1885-1974), a son of Frederick.
Walter Christian Johnston (1911-1959), a son of James.
Joseph A. Turner = Joseph Augustine Turner (1875-1937), grandson of Hollins Institute founder, Dr. Charles Lewis Cocke (1820-1878).
Edward William Johnston (1799-1867), principal.
Charles Johnston (1769-1833).
Frederick Johnston (1804-1893), a son of Charles. Clerk of Roanoke County, 1837-1865. Married to Elizabeth Ann Carter Burwell Johnston (1810-1861).
Fanny Johnston = Frances Royall Johnston (1830-1909), a daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth Ann.
Aunt Mary = Mary Morris Johnston Dillon Cunningham (1810-1884), a daughter of Charles Johnston.
Frank = Dr. Francis Dean Cunningham (1836-1885).
Mrs. Sorrel = Letitia Gamble Watts Rives Sorrel (1829-1900), whose second husband was Dr. Francis Sorrel (1827-1916), a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Her first husband had been Landon Rives (1825-1862).
Mary Jane Allen Watts (1825-1855).
Mrs. Washington = [?].
Sue and Lizzie Peyton = probably related (daughters or nieces) to William Madison Peyton (1814-1868).
Daniel = John Moncure Daniel (1825-1865), died from effects of a duel wound near the end of the American Civil War.
Monsieur Villagrand = Jerome De Cressac Villagrand (1776-1845).
Madame Villagrand = Joséphine Labarrière (1776-1858). Her first husband was Dr. Paul Valentine Costar (d. by 1805).
Estelle = Marie Antoinette Estelle Costar (De Cressac Villagrand) Johnston (circa 1802-1848).
Mrs. Woolly = Margaret A. Jewett Wooley (circa 1821-1867). Best I can determine at this point: she had been married to Charles Henry Jewett, a US Army officer who died in Florida, leaving her a widow with a daughter also named Margaret (circa 1840-1881); she then married a notorious former Army officer Abram/Abraham Roll Wooley (1782-1858) as his third wife. Abram's second wife had been Caroline Letitia Preston (1806-1840), who died of consumption. Edward William Johnston seems to have married Mrs. Wooley sometime between 1858 and 1860, by which time they appear, with her daughter Margaret, in St. Louis, in the 1860 federal census. They had all four been living together in Washington, D.C., in 1850.]
[Many thanks to Sue Davis, William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration.]
