Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet

notes

apparent ancestor of Fredrick L. Johnson

links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Johnson,_1st_Baronet
• https://iroquois.libsyn.com/36-the-american-revolution-i-founding-g...

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GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree  http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=105394700&pi...

As a child of Irish gentry, his family reveals a history of Christian conversion, with Johnson converting from Catholicism to Protestanism around the time became an agent of British colonization of North America. Before arriving in the Mohawk Valley, Johnson began working in Ireland as a rent collector for his maternal uncle, Sir Peter Warren, and officer of the British Royal Navy.
Johnson was soon offered a post working for the British in North America. In 1738, he settled as a fur trader, and merchant near the Mohawk River. He prospered economically and politically, by forming close bonds wih the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) on behalf of the British, and quickly became one of the richest men in the colony.

Johnson was a skilled negotiator, effectively using his connections with the Haudenosaunee and deepened the relationship between the Loyalaists and allied members of the tribe.Johnson became closely associated with the Mohawk, the easternmost nation of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. By the time Johnson arrived, their population had collapsed to 580 persons, due to chronic infectious diseases unwittingly introduced by Europeans and warfare with competing tribes related to the lucrative beaver trade. The Mohawk thought an alliance with Johnson could advance their interests in the British imperial system. Around 1742, they adopted him as an honorary sachem, or civil chief, and gave him the name Warraghiyagey, which he translated as "A Man who undertakes great Things".Working with the Mohawk chief Hendrick Theyanoguin, Johnson recruited Mohawk warriors to fight on the side of the British

In the late 1750's, Konwatsi tsiaienni (Molly Brant) became the mistress of Johnson's home and eventually became Johnson's wife and the matron of Johnson Hall, a grand home where the family hosted large peace gatherings up until Johnson's death. With increased pressure on the Haudenosaunee to side with either the British or American patriots, the Iroquois League succumbed to internal divisions as British Loyalists and Indigenous peoples were pushed north from the Mohawk Valley, losing their lands in New York state and elsewhere. They were among the roughly 2,000 Haudenosaunee forced to abandon their lands and go to Upper Canada, where they joined others who were loyal to the British Crown.

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8514866/william-johnson

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-william-johnson
William Nelson, Fenton,The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy, vol. 223 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).

Milton W. Hamilton, Sir William Johnson: Colonial American, 1715–63 (Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1976).

William Leete Stone,The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart, vol. 1 (J. Munsell, 1865).

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-William-Johnson-1st-Baronet

Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet (born 1715, Smithtown, County Meath, Ire.—died July 11, 1774, near Johnstown, N.Y.) was a pioneer in the Mohawk Valley, New York, whose service as colonial superintendent of Indian affairs was largely responsible for keeping the Iroquois neutral and even friendly to the British in the latter stages of the struggle with the French for control of North America.

His ties with the Indians were further cemented when, following the death of his first wife, he married successively two Mohawk women. The second of these was Molly Brant, sister of the Indian leader Joseph Brant.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Brant

Brant’s sister Molly was the wife of the British superintendent for northern Indian affairs, Sir William Johnson, whom he followed into battle at age 13.