Sir James Johnstone, 4th Baronet (23 January 1726 – 3 September 1794)[1]) was a Scottish officer in the British Army and then a politician.
[3] Johnstone first tried to enter Parliament at the 1774 general election, when he began canvassing Dumfries Burghs, where the interest of the 3rd Duke of Queensberry was dominant.
The 4th Duke of Queensberry lived in England and was unpopular in the area, and Johnstone won the seat in a 4-way contest, with the support of two of the five burghs.
He supported Parliamentary reform and abolition of the slave trade, opposed the penal laws, and protested the tax burden on the poor.
[6] However Johnstone's younger brother William had inherited a large fortune from his wife's family.