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Sir
William Johnson
 Although he owned an impressive house and other property along the Albany waterfront, Sir William Johnson (1715-1774), rarely if ever spent more than a night in the colonial city. However, from the 1740s until his death in 1774, he was a pivotal figure in early Albany history.
Frontier
developer, businessman, Indian diplomat, military
leader, Masonic enthusiast, and all-around British
official, William Johnson was one of the most important
people in colonial New York. His life in America
has been the subject of several biographies and other
historical treatments. The multi-volume edition of
his papers provides an important and unparalleled
window on Albany's diverse functions during the middle
of the eighteenth century.
At
the same time, Johnson was intimately involved with
the Albany business community, in Indian diplomacy
- which frequently brought him into conflict with
the Albany Indian commissioners, and in the Albany
Masonic Lodge. In the future, this page will better
explain William Johnson in his early Albany context!
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Notes: Detail
from a portrait of William Johnson by John Wollaston,
Jr. painted about 1751. In the collection of the
Albany Institute of History and Art. Several other
likenesses of Johnson are known to exist!
Johnson's
Albany house stood on the east side of Market Street
and on the north side of State Street. He purchased
that property from Henry Holland during the winter
of 1748-49. Johnson called it "one of the best houses in
Albany." An
undated notice (but probably of 1748-49 vintage)
described a two-story, brick building with
good cellars, kitchen, and bleach yard. It
was valued at 1,500 pounds. Also included on
the property was a water lot with a frame house
- valued at 500 pounds.The In 1759, Johnson
purchased an adjacent lot from the city of
Albany. Johnson's Albany property was left
to his son-in-law, Daniel Claus.
The
life of Sir William Johnson is CAP biography number
8489. With many Albany contacts, he was a keen and
long-time observer of the Albany scene. The multi-volume
edition of his papers represents a major resource
for early Albany history.
The
most comprehensive biographical study of Johnson
is Milton W. Hamilton, Sir
William Johnson: Colonial American, 1715-1763 (Port Washington, NY: 1976).
Milton Hamilton also was the last editor of the Johnson
Papers. The most modern work on Johnson can be
found in Timothy J. Shannon, Indians
and colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany
Congress of 1754 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
2000).
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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