She was captured and imprisoned after the Battle of Culloden, but escaped from Edinburgh Castle into a brief exile in France before returning to Scotland with her family.

Her many siblings included Barbara, James (later a lieutenant-colonel in the English army), William, George, and John.

[8] Nineteenth-century accounts claim that she did this by trading clothes with her washerwoman and with the help of her sister Barbara Johnston.

[7] This daughter married John Wedderburn who was involved in the landmark Joseph Knight case that found slavery to be incompatible with Scots Law.

Their son David was not considered to be of sound enough mind to inherit the title, which passed to a cousin.