160 ANNAN REFERENCE IN DIARY OF GEORGE Fox. 
dabblings in astrology—was, like all the other members of his 
house, a Roman Catholic, and therefore not lkely to interest 
himself in the way here described in a Quaker sectary. Further, 
and more especially, Caerlaverock had been so seriously injured 
in the siege of 1640 that it had then ceased to be the residence 
of the Earls of Nithsdale, and was now, twenty-seven years later, . 
in a dismantled and ruinous condition. There were, however, at 
this time two other Scottish Earls whose mansions were in the 
neighbourhood of the Carlisle and Dumfries road. The first of 
these was James Murray, second Earl of Annandale, whose seat 
was at Comlongon Castle, already referred to. This nobleman, 
the head of the family of Murray of Cockpool, succeeded his 
father in 1641, and died without issue in 1658, when his Annan- 
dale title became extinct and his second title of Viscount Stor- 
mont passed to his kinsman, David, second Lord Balvaird, the 
ancestor of the Earl of Mansfield, the present owner of his estates 
in Dumfriesshire. The Earl of Annandale was thus alive when 
George Fox visited Scotland, but for twelve years—ever since 
the overthrow of Montrose, of whom he had been an adherent— 
he had lived privately in England, where he died a year later. 
We are thus by a process of exclusion brought to the only 
remaining Scottish Earl connected with this district at the time 
with which we are dealing. This was James, second Earl of 
Hartfell, the chief of the house of Johnstone, whose principal 
residence was at Newbie, near Annan. His father, the first Earl, 
had been a Covenanter; but, like his neighbour, the Earl of 
Annandale, had gone over to the Royalist side under Montrose, 
after whose defeat he had endured several terms of imprisonment, 
and had even lain for a time under sentence of death. The 
second Earl, then Lord Johnstone, had for a time been im- 
prisoned along with his father, but had during the Protectorate 
acquiesced in the existing state of things, and was now in this 
very year, 1657, using his best endeavour to secure a favour from 
the Government. This was to have an alteration made in the 
destination of his titles. These had in the grant to his father 
been limited to heirs-male; but the Earl, having now been 
married for twelve years and having as yet no sons, and his only 
brother having recently died, there appeared to be a probability 
of the honours expiring with him. Accordingly, he had resigned 
all his titles in the hope of getting a grant of new ones, which 
