Not this John Johnson
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John Johnson, Ancient Planter
. 1. Ann Johnson (1620) married about 1636 Edward Travis (died after 1682)
. 2. John Johnson, Jr. (1623-after 1659)
The muster of residents of James City taken 24 Jan 1624/5 lists John, his wife
Ann, daughter Ann, age 4, and his son John, age 1. They apparently voyaged
back to England in the mid-1630's, since his heirs were granted 450 acres in
Upper Chippokes, Surry County, on 25 Jan 1637/8, for re-importing his family of
four and bringing five servants. But John apparently died soon after
their return, as Edward Travis repatented the 900 acres 25 Feb 1638/9 in the
names of "Edward Travis and John Johnson, sonn of John Johnson dec'd."
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· This was NOT the John Johnson who married Ann Gooch (Goche). There was a John Johnson who married an Ann Gooch 20 Jul 1635 in Bixley, Norfolk, England. This was apparently the John Johnson who lived in Northumberland County, Virginia, by May 1653, when he was exempted from taxes due to being lame from injuries received "in the last massacre." His son Jeffrey was given land in 1663 by his uncle Jeffrey Goche, provided he cared for his parents John and Ann Johnson. John Johnson of Jamestown died before February 1638/9 when his land was repatented in the names of his only heirs, John Johnson and Edward Travis, so he was not in Northumberland in 1653. And his son John Johnson Jr was only 12 in 1635 when John Johnson, later of Northumberland, married Ann Goche. And if he had married at age 12 in Norfolk, The Travis/Johnson land claim in 1638 would have included another 50 acres for her importation.
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· One Johnstone Family appeared in Scotland in the 12th Century, and centered at Annandale, Dumfriesshire. It is an ancient and honorable family, and appears to share DNA markers with descendants of Robert and William, supposed (but unproven) grandsons of John. The family was split about 1600, when two of the sons of Sir James Raymond de Johnstone were granted lands in Ulster, Northern Ireland. But I have seen no evidence whatever of how John Johnson of Jamestown might have been related to either branch of that family. In May, 2011, I searched the extensive file on this family at the Scottish Genealogy Society in Edinburgh. There were several John Johnstones named on family charts, who could have lived in this time period, but none showed any dates of birth, or any other information. And there was no indication whatever of any of them having gone to Virginia.
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· There is no evidence that this John Johnson was related to Alderman Robert Johnson of London, shareholder in The Virginia Company in 1617, and therefore of the Johnstons of Aberdeen.
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Mr. Johnson compiled various family charts that included:
King Duncan I (c1001-1040)
King Donal Baine (1033-1099)
Bethoc married Uhtred of Tynedale
John, Earl of Buchan (before 1214)
Gilbert de Johnston (c.1191) surety for Robert Bruce 1218
Gilbert of Johnston (c.1249)
Thomas Johnston (fl.1296)
Gilbert of Johnstone, granted land in Dumfriesshire in 1320
Adam Johnstone
Stiven Johnston married before 1380 Margaret Garioch (Garviach) of Caskieben
John Johnston (fl. 1425) married Marjorie Leighton
Gilbert Johnston (d.1476) married (2) Elizabeth Forbes
William Johnston, Laird of Crimond:
1. Sir Edward Johnston of Crimond
2. Sir Robert Johnston (fl.1536)
3. Sir Robert Johnston (d.1616)
4. John Johnson, to Jamestown 1609
1. Sir Robert Johnston of Cayesmill
2. Sir James Johnston (1539-1615)
3. Sir Robert Johnston (d.1630)
4. Robert Johnson, Alderman (d.1626)
Deputy Treasurer of the Virginia Company 1617
Sir Robert Johnston (died 1616) merchant Burgess of Aberdeen, married Isobel Boyes and had:
. . 1. Sir Robert Johnston married Agnes Johnston. Sold Crimond in 1634
. . 2. Rev. John Johnston married Katherine Melville. Professor of Theology at St Andrews
. . . . graduate of Roslock in 1584, and of Helmctadt in 1589. The only child of Robert and Isobel to
. . . . have several articles included in Lorand Johnson's book.
. . 3. James Johnston, book seller in Edinburgh
. . 4. Isobel Johnston (d.1604) married Peter Blackburn
. . 5. Ninian Johnston
. . 6. Margaret Johnston married John Duff
. . 7. Christian Johnston married Duncan Balfour
. . 8. Marjorie Johnston married John Sanderis
. . 9. John Johnston moved to London (?John Johnson of Jamestown)
. . . . another note says (John Johnson and John Boyes to Jamestown 1609)
. . . . But there is no documentation that Robert and Isobel had a second son named John
Alderman Robert Johnson moved from Scotland to London with King James VI of Scotland when he became James I of England in 1603, and assumed the English spelling of his name with the move. He was a shareholder in The Virginia Company, and became Deputy Treasurer. In 1609, he wrote a tract Nova Britannia which was influential in attracting settlers. Mr. Lorand Johnson maintained that Alderman Robert sent his third cousin John Johnson, and John's cousin John Boyes, to Jamestown in 1609. He offered no documentation. There was a John Boyse in Jamestown, a Burgess from Martin's Hundred in 1616 and 1619, a successful tobacco planter, his will proved in May 1650 mentions no surviving wife or children.. I have seen no evidence of Boyse's relation to John Johnson of Jamestown.
There are no sources given for these notes concerning John Johnson of Jamestown. And they appear to have been added later. On several charts, only 8 children are listed, the second John being omitted. And these are only notes on the family charts; nothing in text form supports them. Nowhere does Mr Johnson indicate where these notes came from, or why he inserted them into this family list. Without any indication of his source, we have only an unsubstantiated claim. A logically plausible fiction is not proof.
So there is NO evidence HERE to indicate whether John Johnson
of Jamestown was, or was not, related to the Johnstons of Aberdeen. Anyone
finding such evidence, please contact me.
e-mail me