Sir Alexander Johnston, PC, FRS (died 6 March 1849), was a British colonial official who served as third

Chief Justice of Ceylon The Chief Justice of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the head of the judiciary of Sri Lanka and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Established in 1801, the Chief Justice is one of ten Supreme Court justices; the other nine are ...

and second

Advocate Fiscal of Ceylon The Attorney General of Sri Lanka is the Sri Lankan government's chief legal adviser, and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The Attorney General is usually a highly respected Senior Advocate, and is appointed by the ruling gov ...

. He introduced a range of administrative reforms in Sri Lanka, introducing numerous liberal ideas and supporting the rights of natives. He was also an orientalist and along with Henry Thomas Colebrooke and others he was a founding member of the

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

Early life

Johnston was born in Carnsalloch,

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries (''Siorrachd Dhùn Phris'' in Gaelic) is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county. I ...

in Scotland to Samuel Johnston and Hester Napier, daughter of

Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier ( Scott) ( – 1773) was a Peerage of Scotland, Scottish peer. Early life Born Francis Scott , he was the son of Sir William Scott, 2nd Baronet of Thirlestane, and Elizabeth Napier, Mistress of Napier. Career Upon ...

. Johnston moved with his family when his father obtained a posting in Madurai under Lord Macartney in the

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Presidency in 1781. Alexander received his early education from

Christian Friedrich Schwarz Christian Frederick Schwarz (with spellings including Friedrich and Schwartz or Swartz) (8 October 1726 – 13 February 1798) was a German Lutheran missionary to India. He was known for his linguistic skills, with knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebre ...

, the missionary as well as under Sir Thomas Munro. He could speak

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

, and

Hindustani language Hindustani (; Devanagari: , * * * * ; Perso-Arabic: , , ) is the '' lingua franca'' of Northern and Central India and Pakistan. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, the lan ...

s from an early age.

Colonial career

At the age of eleven, Alexander was offered a commission in the Dragoons but he chose instead to join the family to return to England in 1792. At the advice of Lord Macartney he studied law, initially at Göttingen and then at Lincoln's Inn. In 1799 he accepted a post as Advocate General in Ceylon in 1799 shortly after his marriage to Louisa Campbell (1766–1852), the daughter of Captain

Lord William Campbell Lord William Campbell (11 July 1730 – 4 September 1778) was from a Scottish family loyal to the House of Hanover. His father was John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll. From 1752 to 1760, he served in the Royal Navy in India. In 1762, becaus ...

of the Royal Navy. He became a chief justice in 1805 and in 1809 he was asked to provide suggestions for the administration of Ceylon, many of which were included in the charter for the East India Company in 1813. He was knighted in 1811 and by 1817 he took up an honorary position as an admiralty judge. Johnston was responsible for bringing the '' Mahavamsa'', Sri Lanka's historical epic, to European attention when he sent manuscripts of it and other Sinhala chronicles to Europe for publication during his tenure as Chief Justice. Jonhston encouraged the translation of the ''Mahavamsa'' and other works in order to bring British colonial law into alignment with local traditions and values. The reforms that Sir Alexander Johnston made included universal public education, freedom of religious practice, abolishment of slavery, employment of natives in government, and the codification of laws including the traditional views of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists. Johnston returned to England in 1819.

Retirement

Johnston stood as a liberal representing the Dumfries burghs in 1840 but failed. After retirement Johnston founded the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

. He died on 6 March 1849 at London and was buried at Carnsalloch, Dumfriesshire.

Personal

His son

Alexander Robert Johnston Alexander Robert Johnston, FRS (formerly Campbell-Johnston, 14 June 1812 – 21 January 1888) was a British colonial official who served twice as Acting Administrator of Hong Kong from 1841 to 1842. He also served in the Executive and Legislati ...

was a colonial official in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

before going to England (and died in the United States in 1888).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Alexander 1849 deaths 19th-century British people Attorneys General of British Ceylon British Ceylon judges Chief Justices of British Ceylon Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Puisne Justices of the Supreme Court of Ceylon Sri Lankan people of Scottish descent