Dr Arthur had at least five brothers and seven sisters, who lived to be adults. The eldest, John Johnston, was appointed sheriff of Aberdeen in 1630, and the youngest, Dr. William Johnston, after having filled the chairs of humanity and philosophy in the university of Sedan, was appointed the first professor of mathematics in Marischal college. Like his brother he also wrote Latin verses.
Arthur received the early part of his education at the grammar school of Kintore, in the neighbourhood of his father’s estate, and is supposed to have studied at King’s college, Old Aberdeen, as he was afterwards elected rector of that university.
With the view of studying medicine, in 1608 he went to the continent, and twice visited Italy. He remained for some time at the university of Padua, where, in 1610, the degree of M.D. was conferred upon him.
He subsequently traveled through Germany, Denmark, and Holland, and, after visiting England, some records claim he at last settled in France, where he acquired considerable eminence as a Latin poet. He supposedly lived in that country for about twenty years, and by two wives, {the one claimed to be a French-woman in some accounts who is not listed in other accounts, and the other who is usually listed was Mary Kynucle (died @1620) a native of Brabant in what is now Belgium,} he had thirteen children. While residing in France, as we learn from several of his poems, he was engaged in a lawsuit in the court of Mechlin, with a person living near the forest of Ardennes, in which he was at last successful. Historian Dr. Irving conjectures that the subject of ligation was some property accruing to him by marriage.
Around 1624 he married for either the second or third time to Barbara Gordon, the daughter of John Gordon of Newton and his wife Margaret daughter of Laird Udny.
Dr. Lorand V Johnson in his book , Johnstons of Caskieben, lists the following children for Barbara Gordon and Artur Johnston:
Barbara Johnston born 1631 who married George Cullen
Elizabeth Johnston who married John Sexton.
Margaret Johnston who married George Dalgarno of Balcors
William Johnston who was baptized in 1636 and became a professor of civil law in 1660 and married second wife Helen Cullen in March 23 1662.
Edward Johnston born 21 Apr 1638, in New Leslie, Aberdeen, Scotland who married Elizabeth Walker (Elizabeth Walker(Johnston), born 13 Jan 1656/57 in Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland) ; in 1677 at St Peters Parish New Kent Virginia Colony.
On the death of King James, in 1625, Dr. Johnston, whom he had patronized, celebrated his mild virtues in an elegy, which was printed at London the same year. In 1628, he published at Aberdeen, two elegies, one addressed to Bishop Patrick Forbes on the death of his brother, and the other on the breaking of the ancient alliance between Scotland and France. On the title page he is styled one of the royal physicians. In 1632 he returned to Scotland, after an absence of twenty-four years. He appears soon after to have had a lawsuit in the court of session, in reference to which several of his poems are written, one of which is addressed to Lord-chancellor Hay, and another to the Lord-advocate Nicholson.
On the visit of Charles I. to Edinburgh in 1633, Johnston was introduced to Archbishop Laud, who became his patron. He had printed at London a specimen of a new version of the Psalms of David, which he dedicated to that prelate, who urged him to proceed with it. a complete translation of the whole was published by him four years afterwards. The comparative merit of Johnston’s translation of the Psalms and Buchanan’s version was, about the middle of last century, the subject of a famous controversy, in which the notorious William Lauder and a simple English gentleman, of the name of Benson, an auditor of the Imprests in the Exchequer, stood forward as the zealous trumpeters of Johnston, while Mr. Love and Mr. Reddiman ably and successfully defended Buchanan. Three editions of Johnston’s Psalms were printed at Benson’s expense, with an elegant Life of the translator prefixed. One of these, in quarto, with a fine portrait of Johnston, by Vertue, after Jamesone, and copiously illustrated with notes, was published in 1741, dedicated to the price of Wales. The following woodcut is taken from it:
Johnston died in 1641, at Oxford, whither he had gone on a visit to one of his daughters, who was married to a clergyman of the church of England of that city, where he lies buried. He appears to have been on terms of intimacy with most of the eminent men of his time in Scotland, many of whom he has commemorated in his poetry, and there is scarcely a family of any note in the north of Scotland, to some branch of which he has not addressed his Latin verses.
His works are:
Parerga, and Epigrammata. Aberdeen, 1632, 8vo. the former dedicated to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, and the latter to the earl of Lauderdale.
The Song of Solomon, with the seven penitential, and the seven consolatory Psalms, translated into Latin elegiac verse. London, 1633, 8vo. The first dedicated to the king, the second to Laud, and the third to Lesley, bishop of Raphoe. New edition printed by Ruddiman. Edin. 1709.
Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasum Poetica, being a complete translation of the Psalms of David. Aberdeen, 1637, 12mo. Dedicated to Mary Erskine, Countess Marischal. Appended are the Canta Evangelica, comprehending the Salutation of the Angel, the Song of Elizabeth, the Song of the Blessed Virgin, the Song of Zacharias, the Song of Simeon, the Hymn of St. Ambrose, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Reprinted at London in 1637 and 1652, also at Amsterdam in 1766, under the inspection of David Hoogstratan, and dedicated to James Brockhusius.
He also wrote Musae Aulicae, or commendatory verses on some of his most distinguished contemporaries, and edited the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, in which he introduced many of his own pieces. Published at Amsterdam in 1637.
Collected edition of his works, by Mr. William Spang, minister of the Scottish church at Campvere. Middleburg, 1642.
