Genealogy Data Page 161 (Notes Pages)

----------, Martha (b. , d. ABT DEC 1699)

Given Name: Martha

Death: ABT DEC 1699

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Amory, Thomas (b. 1608, d. 1657)

Given Name: Thomas

Death: 1657 Ireland

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Elliott, Anne (b. )

Given Name: Anne

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Johnson, John (b. 6 NOV 1736, d. 11 FEB 1821)

Note: Captain John Johnson was a hero of the American Revolution. He was present at the destruction of the statue of George III at the Bowling Green on July 9th, the day the news that the Declaration of Independence had been signed reached New York City. He gave a rabble-rousing speech and chopped off two of the statue's fingers with a hatchet. The lead of which the statue had been made was later used to make 42,088 bullets.

Captain Johnson later mortgaged his house on Broadway in order to raise money to fund a company of infantry. At the head of that company, of the Fifth New York Line, he distinguished himself at the Battle of White Plains. Later, when he had moved to Charleston, he was present at a reception at the Heyward house in honor of President Washington, who was visiting the city. When General Pinckney, the master of ceremonies, began to introduce John Johnson to the President, Washington put his hand on Johnson's shoulder and said, "I need no introduction, we have smelt powder together."

Given Name: John

Death: 11 FEB 1821 Charleston, South Carolina

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Johnson, Susannah (b. )

Given Name: Susannah

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Johnson, Michael (b. )

Given Name: Michael

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Johnson, Thomas Nightingale (b. 18 FEB 1770, d. ABT 20 AUG 1802)

Given Name: Thomas Nightingale

Death: ABT 20 AUG 1802

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Johnson, William (b. 27 DEC 1771, d. 4 AUG 1834)

Note: Justice William Johnson attended Princeton, graduating in 1790 with the highest honors. He read law with Charles C. Pinckney and was admitted to the bar in 1793. In 1794, at the age of twenty-three, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives where he served three terms, being elected Speaker of the House in his last term. He was associated with the Democratic-Republicans, the party founded by Thomas Jefferson. That same year he married Srah Bennett, the sister of Governor Thomas Bennett.

In 1799 the legislature appointed him to the state's Constitutional Court, where he served for four years. On March 22nd, 1804, Jefferson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court and the Senate confirmed his nomination two days later.

On the bench, Johnson tended to favor federalism, although not nearly so much as Chief Justice Marshall and Justice Joseph Story. But he was fearless in his opinions and did not hesitate to disagree with his usual allies. In 1808, in Ex Parte Gilchrist, he granted a writ of mandamus to compel the collector of the port of Charleston to issue clearances to vessels engaged in the coasting trade, regardless of orders from the executive enforcing the Embargo Act. Federalists saw this as a rebuke of Thomas Jefferson and gave the case wide publicity, but Johnson and Jefferson would remain friends. On Jefferson's death in 1826 he wrote a "eulogy of Thomas Jefferson." he was a member of the American Philosophical Society and wrote frequently for its meetings.

In 1824, riding circuit, he upheld federal control of commerce, including that in slaves, in the broadest sense, and opposed the doctrine of the right of secession. This decision caused Johnson great loss of popularity in South Carolina. Chief Justice Marshall, probably not without some glee, noted that "Our brother Johnson . . . has hung himself on a democratic snag in a hedge composed entirely of thorny States Rights in South Carolina."

Probably because of his unpopularity in South Carolina, Justice Johnson moved to Pennsylvania in 1833. He died the following year after coming to New York to have his jaw operated on, shortly after what must have been a gruesomely painful business for anesthetics were still a decade away.

During his thirty-three years on the Court, Johnson wrote more opinions than any justice except Marshall and Story, many of them in dissent and he is regarded as the first great dissenter. He was also the author of a two-volume life of General Nathaniel Greene.

Johnson is the subject of a biography by Donald G. Morgan, "Justice William Johnson, the First Dissenter: The Career and Constitutional Philosophy of a Jeffersonian Judge." An article on him appears in the Dictionary of American Biography.