Who Were the Loyalists?
Background information for Teachers

Biographies of the Loyalist Era

Sir John Johnson, Loyalist

John Johnson was born near Johnstown, New York on November 5, 1741. He died on January 4, 1830 in Montreal, Quebec. He was buried in a family vault on the slope of Mont Saint-Gregoire (formerly called Mount Johnson).

John Johnson lived in the Mohawk River Valley, west of Albany, New York. He went to an academy (high school) in Philadelphia. He became a "baronet" (low British royalty) when his father, Sir William Johnson, died in 1774. His father had been an Indian Agent, a government official that was a link between the British and the Native Peoples, in this case the Iroquois.

When he succeeded his father, he refused to become an Indian Agent. He was happy to be just a farmer along the Mohawk River. When the Revolutionary War began, he started the King's Royal Regiment of New York to fight the rebels/patriots. This group was involved in some attacks and scouting in northern New York during the rest of the Revolutionary War. General St. Leger troops, including Johnson's regiment and loyal Iroquois, were defeated at Fort Stanwix on the way to help General Burgoyne. Burgoyne's troops were then defeated at Saratoga. Loyalists such as Johnson lost their military support. They and the Mohawks with Joseph Brant tried to stay and fight the Revolutionaries in the area and in the south-west towards Ohio and Kentucky in 1778. But rebel attacks against their families and farms in 1779 forced them to leave their lands and escape north. Probably following the Mohawk River west to Lake Oneida and then the Oswego River north to Lake Ontario, Johnson and his troops escaped to Canada.

In 1780 and 1781, Johnson's regiment joined Joseph Brant's Rangers and Butler's Rangers to again attack rebel soldiers in western New York, Ohio and Kentucky. In 1782, he was made a Brigadier-General as well as the Inspector-General of the Six Nations (Iroquois).

After the Revolutionary War, he stayed in Montreal. He spent his time working hard for the rights and rewards the Loyalists and Iroquois deserved for their efforts in the Revolutionary War. His influence helped create the Grand River Iroquois Reserve. Many of Joseph Brant's warriors, unable to return to their old central New York lands, went to live there. In 1791, the Constitutional Act was passed and created Upper Canada for the Loyalists. Sir John Johnson was upset to learn that he was not rewarded for his all work. He expected to be named the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.

Sir John Johnson tried to live in England, but returned to Montreal in 1796. He took back his job as the head of the "Indian Department". He spent the next years dealing with the Native Peoples of Canada, protecting their rights. Though he missed his lost farmland in New York, he was still wealthy. He owned many large pieces of land in Lower and Upper Canada. When he died in Montreal in 1830, about 300 Mohawks (Iroquois) came to his funeral.