Charity Johnson

Not the same as Charity L'Hommedieu

Biography

Charity Floyd Nicolls/Johnson was born April 6, 1692, a daughter of Richard Floyd and Margaret [Woodhull,] at Mastic, Suffolk county, New York and died June 1, 1758 at New York City at 66 years of age; m (1) Benjamin Nicolls; m (2) Rev. Samuel Johnson (Yale 1714), of Stratford, Connecticut, by whom she had at least one son, William Samuel Johnson, [1] a signer of the U.S. Constitution and one of the first two U.S. Senators from Connecticut.

He had two sons: William Samuel, mentioned below ; William, born March 9, 1730-31, graduate of Yale, 1748, tutor in Kings College, died of smallpox, June 20, 1756, without issue.

Notes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson_(American_educator)

In 1725, Samuel Johnson, the son of a fulling miller, married the widow Charity Floyd Nicoll, the mother of three young children, one of whom, William Nicoll, was heir to the vast estate of Islip Grange, in Sayville, New York, then part of a 100 square mile estate on Long Island owned by the Matthias Nicoll family. Johnson thus acquired close contacts with the leading merchant, legal, and political families of New York colony, many of whom would send their sons to board with him in Stratford, to be prepared for college.[21] His first son by Charity, William Samuel Johnson, was born on October 14, 1727; his second son, William "Billy" Johnson, was born on March 9, 1731.

Johnson had been considering a college in New York since 1749.[42] In 1750, Johnson began to exchange a series of letters with Benjamin Franklin over the founding of a "new-model" or "English" college. Franklin admired Johnson's moral philosophy, and asked him to head up a proposed College of Philadelphia.[43] Johnson declined the offer, and instead worked with his wife's relations, his step-sons, former students, and the rector and vestrymen of the Anglican Trinity Church in New York City to found a college there. …

… Without funding and without an official charter, Johnson defiantly opened King's College (now Columbia University) in July 1754. On October 31, it finally received the Royal charter. Its charter promoted a college without a religious test for admission, was practice and profession oriented, public spirited, inclusive and diverse, and taught the then new disciplines of English literature and moral philosophy. …

But even as his college rose, his life took a downward trend. He turned 60 in 1756. That year he lost his first grandson. That same year his beloved son William "Billy" died of smallpox on his ordination trip to England. His wife Charity died of smallpox in 1758. His step-daughter Anna and his student and wife's nephew Gilbert Floyd died in 1759. His stepson Benjamin Nicoll, his best tutor Daniel Treadwell, and his fellow Great Apostate Rev. Wetmore died in 1760.

On June 18, 1761, he married Sarah Beach, the widow of his old friend William Beach, and his son's mother-in-law, and for a brief time he was "very happy".[52]

References

• Richard Floyd's will is dated 27 February 1738. He mentions his son Nicoll, Nathaniel Woodhull, "land bought of Major William Smith," son Richard, grandson Floyd Smith (under age), granddaughter Gloriana Margretta Nicoll, "my Grand Daughter Dongan that is to say the Daughter of my beloved Daughter Ruth Dongan Deceased," executors sons Richard and Nicoll. The witnesses were Samuel D'Honeur, Zopher Platt, Isaac Browne.
• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volumes 21-22 edited by Richard Henry Greene, Henry Reed Stiles, Melatiah Everett Dwight, George Austin Morrison, Hopper Striker Mott, John Reynolds Totten, Harold Minot Pitman, Charles Andrew Ditmas, Louis Effingham De Forest, Conklin Mann, Arthur S. Maynard < GoogleBooks > Col. Floyd, the first settler, was supposed to have died about 1700, and the number of his children is uncertain. His son Richard, designated as Richard 2d, married Margaret, daughter of Col. Matthias Nicolis, secretary of the colony of New York, and sister of William Nicoll the patentee of the great Islip estate. He was for many years judge and colonel of the county militia. His children were : Susanna, married Edmund Smith ; Margaret, married Judge John Thomas : Charity, married Benjamin Nicoll, and 2d, Dr. Samuel Johnson, President of King's (now Columbia) College ; Eunice, married William Stephens ; Ruth, married Walter Dongan ; and Richard and Nicoll.
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11695120/charity-johnson
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Floyd-1557 cites

1. Roberts, Gary Boyd, Notable Kin, Volume One (Published in cooperation with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, by Carl Boyer, 3rd, Santa Clarita, California, 1998), p. 148. Cit. Date: 25 Jul 2021.

• Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1885) Vol. 1, Page 509.
• Early New Netherland Settlers, by Robert Gordon Clarke (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rclarke/) Cites:
  • The Genealogist, Spring 2001, p. 78.
  • The Genealogist, Fall 1981, Volume 2, Number 2, p. 213.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Samuel_Johnson
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson_(American_educator)
• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/23078874/person/16...