jurist legislator military politician
Peter Johnston was born on January 6, 1763 at Osborne's Landing on James River, Virginia, the oldest son of a Scottish immigrant, Peter Johnston, and his wife, formerly the widow Martha (Butler) Rogers. Two years after his birth the family moved to Prince Edward County.
Peter schooled by Scottish tutors before entering Hampden-Sidney College, newly established on land given by his father, to prepare for the ministry. He ran away from college and enlisted in the legion of "Light-Horse Harry" in 1780, and served through the remainder of the war of the Revolution, gaining the rank of lieutenant and becoming a favorite of Colonel Lee, although only a lad of eighteen. He afterward studied law and was a member of the committee that reported the Virginia resolutions of 1798-99.
Despite his father's royalist feelings, he soon became an ardent patriot, and shortly before his seventeenth birthday ran away from college with a classmate to enlist in the cavalry legion of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee. Vigilant, enterprising, ambitious, and brave, within a year he had risen from the ranks to a lieutenancy and had become a favorite with his fellows and his commander.
He fought with Lee's Legion throughout the Southern campaign, 1780-81, and bore himself most creditably at Guilford, Eutaw Springs, Wright's Bluff, and Ninety-six, resigning in 1782 to join as adjutant and captain the Light Corps formed by General Greene. Several years later the Virginia legislature fittingly commissioned him brigadier-general of militia.
After the war he returned to his father's home, devoted himself to the study of law, and built up a successful practice in Prince Edward and the adjoining counties. Aligning himself with the Jeffersonian school, he was elected to the legislature in 1792, and within the next eighteen years represented Prince Edward County a dozen times more, during the better part of two sessions (1805-06 and 1806 - 07) being speaker of the House of Delegates.
His most conspicuous service in the Assembly was his strenuous advocacy, in committee and on the floor, of the famous Virginia Resolutions of 1798, protesting against the Alien and Sedition Acts and asserting the doctrine that the Union was a compact to which the states were parties.
In 1802, with General Joseph Martin and Creed Taylor, he represented Virginia on the commission appointed to settle the Tennessee boundary question. He was elected a judge of the Virginia general court, February 1, 1811, and assigned to the Prince Edward district, but exchanged circuits with Judge William Brockenbrough, removed to "Panicello, " near Abingdon, and until he resigned, a few months before his death, presided with distinguished ability over the superior court of the southwest Virginia circuit.
He died December 8, 1831, and was buried near his home, in this county.
A soldier by instinct and heritage, he retained throughout life a predilection for the military profession, and, had he continued in it, he would doubtless have won more than local reputation.
Johnston was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Johnston was a man of impeccable character and vigorous, scholarly mind, and fine appearance.
Peter Johnston married, June 23, 1788, Mary Wood, daughter of Valentine Wood of Goochland County and a niece of Patrick Henry; she died in 1825, and he married, second, December 13, 1828, Anne Bernard of Buckingham County.
