Adam Johnson - Patriot

Our family is justly proud of our United Empire Loyalist Heritage.  Many of our ancestors gave up everything they owned and put themselves in grave danger in order to uphold their beliefs.  But not all sided with the British during the revolutionary war.  Adam Johnson was one such man.

Adam Johnson, my 3rd Great Uncle was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in the year 1745.  His parents were James Johnson and Elizabeth who came to Truro, Nova Scotia in 1761.  They were part of a group called the Cobiquid Planters, gathered by Alexander McNutt to settle the land around the Bay of Fundy.   This land had belonged to the Acadiens who had been expelled 6 years earlier by the British Government.


Adam was one of the Grantees of the Township of Truro.  He received a share of 500 acres.  He is recorded in his own household for the census taken in January 1771 as Adam Johnson Jr, He was called Junior to differentiate him from his cousin of the same name who was the son of Lieutenant John Johnson and Sarah Hogg - this Adam was also a Truro Grantee)    This census records that his is alone in his household and was born in America"   His land usage is recorded as 3 acres of arable land, 8 acres of mowing land and 489 acres of wooded land.

In the year 1772 Adam and John Archibald are recorded in the township as being "Constables"for the township.  His name is mentioned next when in the year 1777 he is recorded as being the "Fence Viewer" for the following term.  It was likely about this time or soon afterward he left Truro and returned to New England where he took up arms against Britain in the Revolutionary War.  Adam eventually was to settle on a farm near Castleton, Rutland County,, Vermont.  Shortly before his death he had been granted 400 acres of land by the US Congress for his services during the War.  This grant included the site of the present day of Columbus, Capital of Ohio.  Adam died before he had a chance to move to this new property.


In the book ""History of Branch County, Michigan" it records the following when referring to Adam's grandson, James O. Johnson - Adam Johnson, the grandfather of our subject was born in 1750 and when a very young man, at the commencement of the war between the Colonies and the British, became a refugee from Nova Scotia.  He escaped from the British authorities, joined the patriot forces and fought all through that great struggle.  At the close of the war he was married and became the father of five children.  He died in 1804, at fifty -five years of age.  His son James was born Oct 14, 1790 was reared a farmer and on the 22 day of Nov 1815, married Sarah Ashley of Fair Haven VT  They emigrated form Vermont to Ohio in 1825 and in 1841 they came to Michigan and settled on a farm in the township of Matteson  Afterward, he moved into the village of Union, where in 1865, he died at the age of seventy five.  His wife died the same year at the Age of seventy one.