In 1618, when he was about forty-five years old, the English dramatist, poet and scholar Ben Jonson (1572-1637) set out for his ancestral homeland, Scotland. He made the journey entirely by foot and spent more than a year and a half north of the border. Jonson became a burgess of Edinburgh and visited many notable persons. His most famous stay was with the poet William Drummond of Hawthonden. Drummond recorded his discussions with Jonson in his Conversations. It is from Drummond that we know what Jonson said about his paternal ancestry.
Jonson told Drummond that his grandfather came from Carlisle, and before that, he thought, from Annandale. If this is the case, the grandfather must have been a Johnstone. Jonson also told Drummond that his arms were "three spindles or rhombi." These arms are often described as "the device of the Johnstones of Annandale" in biographies of Jonson.
The undifferenced arms of Johnstone of That Ilk are blazoned in heraldic language as Argent, a saltire Sable, on a chief Gules, three cushions Or, as illustrated here.
How Jonson's description could mean the same thing is puzzling, until
we consider that in several armorial rolls of the sixteenth century
(notably the Dunvegan Armorial and the Armorial Register of
Sir David Lindsay of the Mount (secundus)) the armorial "cushions" of
Johnstone are diamond-shaped, and the colors and metals are simply
Sable (black) and Argent (white).
A diamond-shaped cushion might well be described as a "rhombus," and it is conceivable that this is in fact what Jonson meant.
Further information about Ben Jonson and his work may be found at the Ben Jonson Site. Selected poetry and prose of Ben Jonson may be found at Selected Poetry and Prose of Ben Jonson.
Picture of Ben Jonson used with permission of Anniina Jokinen, author of the Ben Jonson Site.
