View source for Samuel Johnston

{{Short description|American politician (1733–1816)}}
{{For|persons with similar names|Sam Johnston (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2016}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Samuel Johnston
|image = Samuel Johnston - Governeur von Nord Karolina.jpg
|jr/sr = Senior senator
|state = [[North Carolina]]
|term_start = November 26, 1789
|term_end = March 4, 1793
|predecessor = None
|successor = [[Alexander Martin]]
|order2 = 6th
|office2 = Governor of North Carolina
|term_start2 = December 20, 1787
|term_end2 = December 17, 1789
|predecessor2 = [[Richard Caswell]]
|successor2 = [[Alexander Martin]]
|office3 = 1st and 3rd Grand Master of the<br>[[Freemasonry|Masons]] of [[North Carolina]]
|term_start3 = 1787
|term_end3 = 1788
|predecessor3 = ''Office established''
|successor3 = [[Richard Caswell]]
|term_start4 = 1789
|term_end4 = 1792
|predecessor4 = Richard Caswell
|successor4 = [[William Richardson Davie]]
|office5 = [[List of colonial governors of North Carolina|Acting Governor of North Carolina]]
|term5 = 1775
|monarch5 = [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]
|preceded5 = [[Josiah Martin]]
|succeeded5 = [[Richard Caswell]]
|birth_date = {{birth date|1733|12|15}}
|birth_place = [[Dundee]], Scotland
|death_date = {{death date and age|1816|8|17|1733|12|15}}
|death_place = [[Edenton, North Carolina]], U.S.
|party = [[Federalist Party (United States)|Federalist]]
|spouse =
|relations = [[Gabriel Johnston]] (uncle)
|children =
|alma_mater =
|occupation =
|profession =
|signature =
|footnotes =
}}
'''Samuel Johnston''' (December 15, 1733 – August 17, 1816) was an American planter, lawyer, grand master of Freemasons, slave holder,<ref name=fsearch/> and statesman from [[Chowan County, North Carolina]]. He represented [[North Carolina]] in both the [[Continental Congress]] and the [[United States Senate]], and he was the [[List of governors of North Carolina|sixth governor of North Carolina]].

==Early life and education revolution==
Johnston was born in [[Dundee]], Scotland, in the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], on December 15, 1733. In 1736, he accompanied his father, Samuel Sr., in relocating to [[Onslow County, North Carolina|Onslow County]], in what was then colonial-era [[Province of North Carolina]]. Samuel Sr. became surveyor-general of the colony.<ref name="manual">{{cite web |url=http://ncpedia.org/biography/johnston-samuel |title=Samuel Johnston| author=Bair, Anna Withers| year=1988| website=NCPedia}}</ref> Young Samuel was educated in [[New England]], and then [[read law]] in Carolina. He moved to Chowan County and started a plantation known as Hayes near [[Edenton, North Carolina|Edenton]].

==Career==
Johnston was admitted to the bar and began a law practice in Edenton. In 1759, he was elected to the [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]] House of Burgesses and served in that body until it was displaced in 1775 during the [[American Revolution]]. During North Carolina's [[War of the Regulation]] in December 1770, he introduced the anti-Regulators bill was later passed as the [[Johnston Riot Act]] in response to the September 1770 [[Hillsborough, North Carolina|Hillsborough]] Riot and to later reports of a planned Regulator march upon the provincial capital, [[New Bern, North Carolina|New Bern]], which ultimately did not occur. The passage of the Johnston Riot Act and others precipitated an even more significant enlargement of the Regulator movement and forced [[William Tryon|Royal Governor Tryon]] to call out the provincial militia, which culminated in the [[Battle of Alamance]] on May 16, 1771.<ref name="manual" /><ref>{{Cite journal | last=Howard| first=Joshua B.| date=October 2009| title=The Battle of Alamance: A Reanalysis of the Historical and Documentary Records| journal=North Carolina Division of Archives and History Report (Revised Ed.)| pages=4–5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last=Kars| first=Marjoleine| title=Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina| publisher=University of North Carolina Press| year=2002| isbn=978-0807849996| location=Chapel Hill, NC| pages=187–191}}</ref>  As a strong supporter of independence, he was also elected as a delegate to the first four [[North Carolina Provincial Congress|provincial congresses]] and presided over the Third and Fourth congresses in 1775 and 1776.<ref name="manual2">{{cite web | url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/manual/manual.html |title=A Manual of North Carolina Issued by the North Carolina Historical Commission for the Use of Members of the General Assembly Session 1913 |editor-last=Connor |editor-first=Robert |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |access-date=November 4, 2008}}</ref> After Royal Governor [[Josiah Martin]] abdicated in 1775, he was the highest-ranking official in the state until [[Richard Caswell]] was elected president of the Fifth Provincial Congress.<ref name="House">{{cite web | url=https://www.carolana.com/NC/Royal_Colony/House_of_Burgesses/royal_27th_house_of_burgesses.html|author=Lewis, J.D.|title=Royal Colony of North Carolina, 27th House of Burgesses|website=Carolana.com|access-date=October 24, 2019}}</ref>

Johnston is frequently cited as having served in the North Carolina Senate in 1779, but that is not confirmed in Senate Journals. He may have been elected, but he certainly did not attend.  In Johnston's own words, after 1777, "...had nothing to do with public business..." during the Revolution.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}<ref>Samuel Johnston to William McCormick, August 1: 1783 Audit Office 13/121/5</ref> Under the new state government, Johnston was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1783 and 1784.

Johnston was the first Grand Master of Freemasons for the State of North Carolina, voted into office on 11 Dec 1787 to revive Masonic activities that had been defunct after breaking away from England. There had only been Deputy Grand Master until he was elected Grand Master. He would be elected Grand Master again in 1789-1791.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://ncpedia.org/biography/johnston-samuel | title=Johnston, Samuel &#124; NCpedia }}</ref>

==Election as president==
North Carolina sent Johnston as a delegate to the [[Continental Congress]] in 1780 and 1781. Johnston was elected the first ''[[President of the Continental Congress|President of the United States in Congress Assembled]]'' under the [[Articles of Confederation]], but he declined the office.  This was reported<ref name="USCA">USCA Journals, America's Four Republics: The More or Less United States. 2d Edition, June 2018</ref> on July 10, 1781:
{{quotation|Mr. [Samuel] Johnston having declined to accept the office of President, and offered such reasons as were satisfactory, the House proceeded to another election; and, the ballots being taken, the hon. [[Thomas McKean]] was elected.<ref name="USCA" />}}

==Later career and death==
Johnston served as [[Governor of North Carolina]] from 1787 to 1789. He presided over both conventions called to ratify the [[US Constitution]]. The one in 1788 rejected the Constitution despite Johnston's strong support. He called another convention in 1789, which decided on ratification. Johnston then resigned as governor to become one of the state's first two [[US Senators]] and served from 1789 to 1793. In 1800, he was made a Judge in the [[Superior Court]] of North Carolina, an office he held until his retirement in 1803.

Johnston died at his home, [[Hayes Plantation]], near Edenton, in Chowan County; he purchased the house from David Rieusett in 1765 and lived there until 1793 when he moved to the Hermitage, a plantation in Martin County.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ncgenweb.us/ncstate/plantations/hayes_plantation.htm | title=Hayes Plantation, Chowan County }}</ref> The 1790 Census shows that he enslaved 96 people at Hayes Plantation.<ref name=fsearch>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YY8-SLXD?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXHK1-P4M&action=view&display=single&groupId=TH-1942-25121-80928-70 Family search] {{user generated source|date=May 2024}}</ref> In 1816 he was buried in the Johnston Burial Ground there. The plantation house is privately owned but was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1973.  It is now within Edenton, but the current house was completed by his son, James Cathcart Johnston, a year after Samuel's death.

On the Hayes farm, Edenton, North Carolina once owned by Johnston in 1983 a copy of the Declaration of Independence  was found; in 2024 a copy of The Constitution of the United States was found<ref>[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-long-lost-copy-of-the-constitution-was-found-in-a-filing-cabinet-on-a-north-carolina-farm-and-it-s-expected-to-sell-for-millions-at-auction/ar-AA1syyqV?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=c2e13a8fda944cd489c6eb1057d77b80&ei=11 a-long-lost-copy-of-the-constitution-was-found accessed 19 October 2024]</ref>

==Legacy==
Samuel Johnston's collection of books, which he bequeathed to his son James, is preserved in a full-scale replication of Hayes Plantation's library at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]].  The octagon-shaped historic room is on permanent exhibit in the North Carolina Collection Gallery in Wilson Library.

==See also==
* [[List of United States governors born outside the United States]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links ==
{{congbio|J000198}}
*{{Find a Grave|8054727}}
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{{s-off}}
{{succession box
| title=[[Governor of North Carolina]]
| before=[[Richard Caswell]]
| after=[[Alexander Martin]]
| years=1787–1789
}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box
| state=North Carolina
| class=3
| before=''None''
| alongside=[[Benjamin Hawkins]]
| after=[[Alexander Martin]]
| years=November 26, 1789 – March 4, 1793
}}
{{s-end}}
{{1796 United States presidential election}}
{{Governors of North Carolina}}
{{USSenNC}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Samuel}}
[[Category:1733 births]]
[[Category:1816 deaths]]
[[Category:American Freemasons]]
[[Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:American people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:18th-century American planters]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1796 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Continental Congressmen from North Carolina]]
[[Category:Governors of North Carolina]]
[[Category:Masonic grand masters]]
[[Category:Members of the North Carolina House of Burgesses]]
[[Category:Members of the North Carolina Provincial Congresses]]
[[Category:North Carolina state court judges]]
[[Category:People from Edenton, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dundee]]
[[Category:Pro-Administration Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:Pro-Administration Party United States senators from North Carolina]]
[[Category:North Carolina Federalists]]
[[Category:Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:United States senators who owned slaves]]
[[Category:18th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:Planters from North Carolina]]
[[Category:State governors of the United States who owned slaves]]