The title Earl of Annandale and Hartfell was created in the Peerage

Peerage of Scotland

The Peerage of Scotland is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 in 1661 for James Johnstone.

In 1625, the title of Earl of Annandale had been created for John Murray, but it became extinct when his son James died without heirs.

James Johnstone, son of Sir James Johnstone, Warden of the West Marches, was created Lord Johnstone of Lochwood in 1633, and in 1643, was further created Earl of Hartfell. Johnstone's son, also James, resigned the earldom and received a regrant of the title, as Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, in 1661, and a further regrant of the same title, but by crown charter, in 1662 to his heirs male of the body, whom failing, his heirs female of the body. William, the second Earl of Annandale

Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway

Annandale is a strath in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, named after the River Annan. It runs north-south through the Southern Uplands from Annanhead to Annan on the Solway Firth and in its higher reaches it separates the Moffat hills on the east from the Lowther hills to the west...

 and Hartfell, was created Marquess of Annandale in 1701. At the death of the third marquess, no one could prove a claim to the peerages of either earldoms and therefore they became dormant.

The earldoms remained dormant until Patrick Hope-Johnstone's claim was approved by the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 in 1985. The Committee for Privileges ruled that the Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 1662 charter of regrant of lands constituted the creation of a new title. The title therefore descended through the female line in the person of Lady Henrietta Johnstone (who married Charles the First Earl of Hopetoun) to Patrick Hope-Johnstone.

The current earl holds the subsidiary title of Lord Johnstone (1662), in the peerage of Scotland.

Earls of Annandale (1625)

with subsidiaries Viscount of Annand and Lord Murray of Lochmaben (both c. 1622) and Lord Murray of Tyninghame (1625)

• John Murray, 1st Earl of Annandale (d. 1640)
• James Murray, 2nd Earl of Annandale (d. 1658)extinct.

Earls of Hartfell (1643)

with subsidiaries Lord Johnston of Lochwood (1633) and Lord Johnston of Lochwood, Moffatdale and Evandale (1643) extinct.

• James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell
  James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell
  James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell was a Scottish peer and royalist.-Background:He was the only son of Sir James Johnstone, the Warden of the West Marches and his wife Sarah, sister of William Maxwell, 5th Lord Herries of Terregles...
  
   (1602–1653)
• James Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Hartfell (d. 1672)

Earls of Annandale and Hartfell (1661 and 1662)

• James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Annandale and Hartfell (d. 1672)
• William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
  William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale
  William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, 1st Marquess of Annandale KT was a Scottish nobleman. He was the son of James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell and Henrietta Douglas...
  
   (d. 1721) (created Marquess of Annandale 1701)

Marquesses of Annandale (1701)

• William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale
  William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale
  William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, 1st Marquess of Annandale KT was a Scottish nobleman. He was the son of James Johnstone, 1st Earl of Hartfell and Henrietta Douglas...
  
   (d. 1721)
• James Johnstone, 2nd Marquess of Annandale
  James Johnstone, 2nd Marquess of Annandale
  James Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and 2nd Marquess of Annandale, was born about 1687-8 and was the eldest son of William Johnstone, 2nd Earl of Annandale and Hartfell and 1st Marquess of Annandale, by his first wife Sophia Fairholm...
  
   (c. 1687–1730)
• George Vanden-Bempde, 3rd Marquess of Annandale
  George Vanden-Bempde, 3rd Marquess of Annandale
  George Vanden Bempde , 3rd Marquess of Annandale, succeeded James Johnstone, 2nd Marquess of Annandale on his death in 1730 , and enjoyed that title from then to his own death, whereupon the title became extinct.- See also :* Earl of Annandale and Hartfell* Sir Richard Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 1st...
  
   (1720–1792) (marquessate extinct and 1661 and 1662 earldom dormant 1792)

Earls of Annandale and Hartfell (1662)

Subsidiary title: Lord Johnstone (1662)

• James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun
  James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun
  James Hope-Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun , known as Viscount Aithrie from 1742 to 1781, was a Scottish Representative Peer....
  
   (1741–1816), de jure 5th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
• Anne Hope-Johnstone (1768–1818) de jure 6th Countess of Annandale and Hartfell
• John James Hope-Johnstone (1796–1876) de jure 7th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
• John James Hope-Johnstone (1842–1912) de jure 8th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
• Evelyn Wentworth Hope-Johnstone (1879–1964) de jure 9th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
• Percy Wentworth Hope-Johnstone
  Percy Wentworth Hope-Johnstone
  Percy Wentworth Hope-Johnstone, de jure 10th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell was a de jure British peer and soldier in the British Army....
  
   (1909–1983) de jure 10th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell
• Patrick Andrew Wentworth Hope-Johnstone, 11th Earl of Annandale and Hartfell (b. 1941) (revived 1985)

The heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

is the present holder's son David Patrick Wentworth Hope-Johnstone, Lord Johnstone (b. 1971).