In describing the different families celebrated in past ages, I have given greater prominence to those whose history has never been published before, and who are still represented in the legitimate male line. Owing to the custom of the sons of heiresses inheriting their mother's name, and of lands being rarely entailed exclusively on male heirs, it is a very unusual circumstance to find two branches of one family claiming unbroken male descent from the 15th century, as is the case with the Johnstones, who numbered nine lairds (more than any other house in Dumfriesshire) in 1581, and a tenth laird in Lanarkshire. Family details help to illustrate the manners of a period, and assist in elucidating some obscure points of national history. In the previous edition, I alluded too briefly to the important Border war of the reigns of Robert Bruce and Edward I., but as the three claimants to the Scottish throne possessed lands in Dumfriesshire, who naturally took much share in it, I have added a Chapter on the subject. The list of Members of ancient Scottish Parliaments will, it is hoped, be found interesting, as well as the pictures of ancient Castles." From the Preface