Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

The History of Montgomery Classis, R.C.A.
by W.N.P. Dailey,
Recorder Press, Amsterdam, NY 1916
To which is added sketches of Mohawk Valley men and events of early days, the Iroquois, Palatines, Indian Missions, Tryon County, committee of Safety, Sir Wm. Johnson, Joseph Brant, Arendt Van Curler, Gen. Herkimer, Reformed Church in America, Doctrine and Progress, Revolutionary Residences, Etc.

Sir John Johnson

Sir John Johnson, the eldest son and heir of Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weisenberg, was born at Warrenbush, November 5, 1742, and died at the age of eighty-eight at Montreal, January 4, 1830. He is referred to elsewhere in this history under Sir William Johnson, Border Wars, Iroquois, etc. When Sir William left Mount Johnson in 1763 to found Johnstown, named after the heir, Sir John took up his residence at what is now called Fort Johnson. The mistress of this baronial mansion for a decade was the beautiful Clara Putman of the Mohawk valley, by whom Sir John had several children. Then a new love came into his life in the person of Mary ("Polly") Watts, the daughter of a wealthy New York Loyalist, and forgetting his promise of marriage to Clara Putman he married Mary Watts June 30, 1773, who died August 7, 1815. On his return to the mansion Sir John had Clara Putman and her children removed, first to the town of Florida, then to Schenectady. where it is said he bot a home for her, and where she lived until 1840. At this time Sir John held a Colonelcy in a Regt. of Horse in northern New York, and afterwards served the King as Maj, General, and as Lieut. Colonel of the "Royal Greens." Sir John and Mary Watts Johnson had eight children -- William (borne in 1775), who married Susan de Lancey; Adam Gordon, who became a third baronet; James, Stephen, Robert, Warren; John, who married Mary, the daughter of Richard Dillon of Montreal; Charles Christopher, and Archibald Kennedy (born in 1792). Now and then writers have carelessly interchanged the names and work of Sir John with those of Guy Johnson who married his sister, Mary, and who became the Indian Agent on the death of Sir William, and who was an irresponsible officer of the British Crown. The life and character of Sir John are best revealed in the stirring times prior to the Revolution, and during it, and in the Border Wars after the Treaty of Peace had been signed, and in his alliance with the Indians to annihilate the Colonists and devastate the Valley of the Mohawk

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