(5 Nov. 1741-4 Jan. 1830), U E Loyalist magnate. Born at Mount Johnson in New York colony. Parents: Sir William Johnson and his wife or commonlaw wife Catherine Weissenberg. On his father’s death in 1774, Sir John Johnson inherited his title of baronet and nearly 200,000 acres of land. During the American revolutionary years, in which he took the Crown side, he raised the King’s Royal Regiment of New York (the King's Royal Regiment of New York), in which numbers of the future GC U E Loyalist settlers served. Johnson became a brigadier general in 1782, and in the same year was made also superintendent general and inspector general of the Six Nations Indians and of the Indians of Quebec.

     In 1784, he was appointed by Governor Haldimand to supervise the settlement of the U E Loyalists in what is today Eastern Ontario and along the Bay of Quinte. In this way, he was intimately connected with the first European settlement of GC. He supported the desire of the settlers to group themselves by their religions, thus creating a concentration of Scots in the area of Glengarry and Stormont counties. He was involved in the negotiations of 1784 which saw the establishment of the two-mile wide Indian Lands strip which runs along the western edge of Glengarry County. This land was reserved for the Indians of St. Regis, who held it till it was ceded to the Crown in 1847. The “Indian Lands” designation remains familiar today in GC through its part in the system by which GC land is identified by lot and concession. The Gordon Church at St. Elmo, for example, is on Lot 9 of the 19th Concession of Indian Lands.

     As a Loyalist leader, Johnson was entitled to and was given huge amounts of land by the Crown. He owned at least 3000 acres of land in GC. He was the largest landowner GC has ever known. He built a house at the place later known as Fraser’s Point, on Lake St. Francis, where he had a large amount of land. Later, 750 acres of Johnson land at this location passed into the hands of the Frasers of Fraser’s Point. (See entry for Col. Alexander Fraser of Fraser’s Point) At Williamstown, which he named after his father, Sir William Johnson, he built a Manor House, and erected a gristmill and sawmill.The building at Williamstown still known as the Manor House incorporates Johnson’s structure and ranks thereby as one of the oldest houses in Ontario. It is now used to house the local library. In 1814, Johnson donated 14 acres of land at Williamstown for use as a fairground. This land is still used every year for the Williamstown Fair. Johnson seldom resided at Williamstown, and in 1818 he sold the house and other property to Hugh McGillis, of the North West Company. Over the years, the Manor House was home to (among others) Hugh and John McGillis, Murdoch McLennan, Col. D.M Robertson, Lionel Devaux, and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Sir John Johnson hoped to be lieutenant-governor of the new Province of Upper Canada, established in 1791, but was passed over in favour of John Graves Simcoe. David Anderson has pointed out (1994) that if Johnson had received the honour, Williamstown would probably have been, however briefly, the centre of administration for Upper Canada. We may guess that Johnson knew, as casual acquaintances at least, most of the eminent men of the NWC who settled in the GC-Cornwall area.

     After his disappointment over the governorship, Johnson spent four years in England (1792-1796), then he returned to the Canadas, where he lived in Lower Canada, and continued to accumulate property. He died in Montreal. Protestant. Mason. He was married in 1773 to Mary Watts. Occasional contacts between GC and the descendants of Sir John and his wife have continued over the years. Johnson also had children by his commonlaw wife, Clarissa Putnam.

     The pioneer road north from Williamstown to the King’s Road is known as the Johnson Road, after Sir John Johnson. (MacGillivray & Ross 296-298) Williamstown was known for many years to the settlers by the Gaelic name of “Moulain an Sir Ian”–Sir John’s Mill. Cornwall, Ont., was originally known as Johnstown, and as New Johnston, in tribute to Sir John Johnson. The present Johnstown, Ont., which was also known in pioneer times as New Johnstown, still perpetuates the family name. (The name of Johnstown, as a part of Alexandria, has a different origin. See the entry for Fr John Mcdonald, of Alexandria.)

Life of Johnson in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. VI and sources named there * ODict (included in his father’s biog.) * Earle Thomas, Sir John Johnson: Loyalist Baronet (1986) * MDict * Burke’s Peerage Baronetage and Knightage, 150th edn. (1970) * Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage (1995) * Harkness, Senior, McLean, H, Bibliography of Glengarry: index for all * Domesday Book * Archives of Ontario-TP * surrender of Indian Lands, GC,1847, in Indian Treaties and Surrenders, I(1891), 136-138 * Williamstown 200 18-19 , &c. * Ruth D. Mowat, All’s Fair: the Story of Ontario’s Oldest Fair and Its Home Williamstown (1976) * David Anderson, “Sir John Johnson,” GHS, Newsletter, Sept. 1994 * death in Montreal of Sir Edward Gordon Johnson, Bt.; the title now passes to a cousin, Major John Paley Johnson, in England, Glengarry News 18 April 1957 * Charlottenburgh Township officials meet the then Sir John Johnson re clearing title for school building to be used for Nor’Westers Museum at Williamstown, GN 18 Nov. 1965 * front page story (with illustr.) on designation of the Manor House as a structure of national historic and architectural significance, GN 24 May 1995