Background
Gabriel Johnston was born in 1699 in Southdean, Scotland, one of the Johnstons of Annandale.
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Gabriel Johnston
Edit ProfileEducation
Gabriel attended the University of St. Andrews, pursuing at first a medical course, later taking up the study of Oriental languages and literature, and subsequently holding a minor instructorship; but he appears not to have taken a degree.
Career
About the year 1730 Gabriel Johnston joined Bolingbroke and William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, in editing The Craftsman, founded Dececember 5, 1726, a series of weekly papers of a literary and political nature, with a pronounced tinge of Jacobitism; though he later declared that he had never been a Jacobite. During his career with The Craftsman he became acquainted with Lord Wilmington, who was influential in obtaining for him the post of royal governor of North Carolina, made vacant early in 1734 by the withdrawal of Governor Burrington. Johnston arrived in the Cape Fear River in October 1734 and received the oath of office November 2, amidst the applause and good will of the citizens assembled at Brunswick.
Though he began his new office under exceedingly favorable circumstances, in less than three months he found himself in open collision with the General Assembly over the question of quit rents - Johnston insisting that quit rents, upon which his own salary depended, be paid in "proclamation money" instead of in commodities, and at four specified places in the colony. This dispute occasioned a political chaos in North Carolina for the next ten years; Johnston convened and dissolved one Assembly after another without accomplishing one piece of legislation. Finally, in June 1746, the General Assembly declared that in view of the scarcity of silver and gold in the colony, the refusal of Governor Johnston to receive produce in payment of quit rent was "a very great grievance" and sent a remonstrance to the Governor, which he tactlessly ignored.
The northern counties thereupon withdrew from the Assembly and refused to pay rent in any form, and their example was soon followed by some of the southern counties. In April 1749 Johnston was able to procure the passage of a quit-rent bill which satisfied him, but its actual results were slight, since by this time the whole colony was in practical rebellion against him. Johnston died less than three years later, a broken and disappointed man.
Achievements
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Gabriel Johnston is best remembered as the longest serving governor of North Carolina, holding the office for 18 years. Although Johnston's administration was marked chiefly by the quit-rent controversy, it can claim several accomplishments: free schools were opened; printing was established at New Bern in 1749; the boundary between North and South Carolina was partially settled.
Personality
Johnston's "intentions doubtless were good, and his motives pure enough, but he was exceedingly arbitrary, not to say unscrupulous. " His papers reveal more of his personal quarrels than of the state of the province. He was headstrong, tactless, and often unnecessarily opposed to compromise.
Connections
Johnston was twice married. His first wife, who had been married three times before, was Penelope (Golland) Pheney, daughter of John and Penelope Golland and step-daughter of Governor Charles Eden; she died in 1741. His second wife, Frances, survived him and married, second, John Rutherford. By his first wife he left one child, Penelope, who married Colonel John Dawson. His nephew, Samuel Johnston, 1733-1816, became a United States senator.
References
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Born
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Died
July 17, 1752 (aged 53) -
Resting place
Saint Pauls Episcopal Churchyard, Edenton, North Carolina, United States -
Nationality
American