Johnston, William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. K. Johnson, “JOHNSTON, WILLIAM (1782-1870),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/johnston_william_1782_1870_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Agitator and pirate; b. at Trois-Rivières, Province of Quebec, 1 Feb. 1782, the son of loyalist James Johnston, a sergeant in Edward Jessup’s corps of loyalist rangers; d. 17 Feb. 1870 at Clayton, N.Y.
    • Although his formal education was limited, “Bill” Johnston learned blacksmithing and boat building as a youth in Ernestown Township, Upper Canada, and in the years 1804–13 operated first a lake freighting business and then a store in Kingston. In 1810 he married an American citizen of Washington County, N.Y., Anna Randolph, a step which he later described as being the root of his troubles. He served in 1812 as a private in the 1st Regiment of Frontenac militia but in 1813 was imprisoned at Kingston on suspicion of being an American agent in communication with Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s fleet; Johnston always denied the charge. He escaped from prison and defected to the American forces, leaving behind, by his own account, property to the value of $20,000. His role during the remainder of the war is obscure, but it certainly included spying and making small raids on British shipments of supplies and mail. He afterwards claimed to have personally known and to have earned the gratitude of both Chauncey and General Jacob Brown.
    • Bill Johnston’s contemporaries on both sides of the border agreed that he possessed extraordinary courage, strength, and resourcefulness; but he was also uncouth, a braggart, and of dubious honesty. Because of his unsavoury reputation it has generally been supposed by Canadian historians that he was simply a criminal whose piratical activities were undertaken for his own enrichment, yet his numerous letters to Mackenzie from 1837 to 1840 strongly suggest a higher motive. He was a convinced republican who believed sincerely in a government and a society more democratic than those he had left in Upper Canada. He was not, however, in any sense a revolutionary. He had no faith in a spontaneous Canadian uprising. In American terms his political views were conservative. In the 1830s and 1840s he consistently supported the Whig party of Henry Clay and William Harrison against the Democrats of Martin Van Buren. His motives for joining the Patriot movement were straightforward: in his own words he wished to “drive the two countries at it” in the hope of an American victory, or, failing this, to create as great a financial drain on the British Treasury as possible.
  • Son of Proven Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4257
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92233763/william-johnston