General Notes

John Johnson was born about 1588 to 1590, in Wilmington, Ke
nt,
England. (Banks Topgraphical Dictionary of 2885 English Emi
grants to
New England, 1620-1650) He married 1st, Mary Heath, daughte
r of
William Heath and his wife, Agnes Cheney, on September 21
, 1613, at
Ware, Herfordshire, England. John and Mary had 10 children
, 5 of whom
died young. Mary died in May, 1629, and was buried at Ware
, May 15,
of that year. In 1630, John came to New England with the Wi
nthrop
Fleet, landing at Salem, June 22, 1630. He brought with hi
m his five
children, Mary, Isaac, Elizabeth, Humphrey, and Sarah. As i
t is known
that his first wife Mary's two brothers also came to New En
gland, and
settled at Roxbury also, it is possible that they came toge
ther.
"John settled in Roxbury, where he, with his son-in-law, Ri
chard
Mowry, was made freeman May 16, 1631. He was active in th
e business
of the Colony, as Juryman, serving on committees, as survey
or laying
out the bounds of Towns around Boston. March 4, 1635, Joh
n Johnson
and Richard Dumer were ordered to build a bridge across Mud
dy River.
Five towns were to contribute to the cost. May 25, 1636, o
r 1635, he
was chosen one of a committee to determine the valuation o
f the
several towns. September 8, 1636 he was again chosen for th
at
purpose. May 17, 1637, he was chosen one of the Deputies t
o levy on
the towns for raising fifty men to send against the Pequots
. He was
also chosen surveyor General, an office, which at that time
, included
the care of the stock of arms and the ammunition of the Col
ony....He
was chosen Deputy to the house of Deputies to represent Rox
bury in
1634, the first year of that assembly; and was chosen for t
wenty-one
years aftewards, nearly all consecutively."
(taken from "Genealogy of Captain John Johnson, of Roxbury,
Massachusetts" by Paul Franklin Johnson, 1945.)
Notes from "The Great Migration Begins", John Johnson was t
he
Quartermaster, whose duty it was to distribute gunpowder t
o the major
towns of the Colony, as well as storing the munition suppli
es and
being able to provide every soldier 'one sufficient musket
, sword,
rest and a pair of bandoliers with two fathoms of match fo
r each
musket'. Two accounts, quoted in this book, by the diarist
s of his
time document the tragic fire in March of 1645, which burne
d John
Johnson's house and a large supply of gunpowder which was s
tored
there, follow:
"John Johnson, the surveyor general of ammunition, a very i
ndustrious
and faithful man in his place, having built a fair house i
n the midst
of town, with diverse barns and other outhouses, it fell o
n fire in
the daytime, no man knowing by what occasion, and there bei
ng in it
seventeen barrels of the country's powder, and many arms, a
ll was
suddenly burnt and blown up, to the value of four or five h
undred
pounds, wherein a special providence of God appeared, for h
e, being
from home, the people came together to help and many were i
n the
house, no man thinking of the powder, until one of the comp
any put
them in mind of it, whereupon they all withdrew, and soon a
fter the
powder took fire and blew up all about it, and shook the ho
uses in
Boston and Cambridge, so as men thought it had been an eart
hquake."
(WJ 2:259"
And Eliot remarked, " In this fire were strange preservatio
ns of God's
providence to the neighbors and town, for the wind at firs
t stood to
carry the fire to other houses, but suddenly turned & carri
ed it from
all other houses, only carrying it to the barns and outhous
ing
thereby, & it was a fierce wind, & thereby drove the veheme
nt heat
from the neighbor houses."
John Johnson was on Eliot's list of the first comers to th
e Roxbury
church, being #9. His second wife, Margery Johnson, was #9
0 on
Eliot's list, and it is believed she came to New England i
n the spring
of 1633, and married John soon after. Her maiden name was M