Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet of New York was a Loyalist leader during the American Revolution, British Loyalist/provincial military officer, a politician in Canada and a wealthy landowner.
Background
John Johnson was born on November 5, 1741 in the Mohawk Valley, N. Y. He was the only son of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Colonel Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, and his common-law wife, Catherine Weisenberg, a Palatine German immigrant. He was baptized as an Anglican in the chapel at Fort Hunter. William Johnson was a military commander during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), had promoted the British settlement of the Mohawk Valley and trading with the Mohawk, and founded the community of Johnstown in Tryon County in the Province of New York.
Education
From 1757 until 1760, John studied sporadically at The Academy and College of Philadelphia.
Career
With his father's backing, John became a captain in the New York militia and fought during Chief Pontiac's rebellion. Sir William's prestige also accounted for John's being knighted during a visit to England in 1765. On his father's death, he inherited the title of baronet, lands estimated as high as 200, 000 acres, and significant influence with the surrounding Indians and the British government.
Like his father, Sir John Johnson supported British authority along the frontier. In 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, Johnson began gathering ammunition and recruiting supporters. When threatened with force by Gen. Philip Schuyler, Johnson agreed to disarm his men, and when it became apparent that he would soon be arrested, he fled to Canada. He was promptly commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the British provincial forces and began raising a force of loyalist rangers.
Johnson marched with the British officer Barry St. Leger against Ft. Stanwix in 1777. But while St. Leger's men were successfully repulsing an American relief force at Oriskany, Johnson and his rangers were routed by a sortie from within Ft. Stanwix. Later, Johnson participated in Indian affairs and led a series of raids into the Mohawk Valley.
Whatever the limited value of his military activities during the Revolution, Johnson retained his prestige among British officials. Based in Canada, he was commissioned as Indian superintendent in 1782. He was compensated for the loss of his property in New York by grants of land and substantial cash payments. When the Revolution was over, he was given the task of explaining the consequences of the terms of the peace treaty to England's lroquois Indian allies. He also supervised the settlement of loyalist refugees along the St. Lawrence River and remained active in Indian and loyalist matters. His notoriety as a leader of British and Indian raiding parties along the frontier ensured that he would never be allowed to return from Canadian exile to New York. He lived on—relatively wealthy and still influential—in Montreal, dying at the age of 88.
Achievements
Sir John Johnson engaged in military activities on the New York frontier during the American Revolution and was later a leader of the Tory refugees in Canada.
The Sir John Johnson House in Williamstown, Ontario, was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1961.
Lac Sir John, a small lake near Lakefield, Quebec (and as is the road Chemin Lac Sir John) is named after him.
Connections
On June 30, 1773, Johnson married Mary Watts (daughter of Hon. John Watts President of the King's Council, of New York). After he escaped to Canada in May 1776 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Lady Johnson was detained that year by the Whigs of New York as a hostage for the good conduct of her husband. After she was freed to join Sir John in Canada, the couple lived in Montreal during the winter and spent the summers on their seigneury at Argenteuil, Ottawa on the Ottawa River. The couple also visited in England.
Mary Watts and Sir John Johnson had ten sons and eight daughters. Eight of their sons served in the British army and navy.
Lady Johnson died in Montreal, August 7, 1815.
Johnson and Clarissa Putman's grandson, James E. Van Horne, and great-grandson, William Van Horne, were each elected mayor of Schenectady, New York.
Father:
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
(c.1715—11 July 1774)
Mother:
Catherine Weisenberg
Spouse:
Mary Watts
Daughter:
Anne Nancy Johnson
She married Colonel Edward MacDonnell.
Daughter:
Catherine Maria Johnson
She married Major-General Bernard Foord Bowes, who fell at Salamanca, in 1812.
