Thomas Johnson

(b. Calvert County, Md., 4 Nov. 1732; d. Frederick, Md., 26 Oct. 1819; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick), associate justice, 1791–1793. The son of Thomas and Dorcas (Sedgwick) Johnson, the young Thomas Johnson received basic education at home, worked as a clerk of the Provincial Court, and read law with attorney Stephen Bordley. Johnson was admitted to the Frederick County and Baltimore bars in 1760; six years later, he married Ann Jennings. At age twenty‐nine, he was elected to the provincial assembly. Johnson attended the Maryland convention of 1774 as well as the First and Second Continental Congresses; in June 1775 he nominated George Washington for the post of supreme commander of American military forces. Upon return to Annapolis in August, he helped draft the Association of the Freemen of Maryland, a declaration of rights.

Johnson was valued less for charisma than for prudence and impressive learning. He missed the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but he supported the Declaration of the Delegates of Maryland on 6 July 1776 and aided in the framing of the state constitution. In early 1777, shortly after Johnson was called to the state militia as first brigadier‐general, he was elected governor of Maryland. He was inaugurated on 21 March 1777. After three one‐year terms, he returned to the assembly; there, he supported adoption of the Articles of Confederation. After the Paris Peace, Johnson and Washington formed the Potomack Company to expand the river trade. Johnson sat again in the state legislature from 1786 to 1788; during the ratification convention of 1788, he urged Marylanders to join the new federation.

Johnson then tried to withdraw from public life to pursue business ventures, but privacy eluded him. Between April 1790 and October 1791, while serving as chief judge of the General Court of Maryland, he chaired the Board of Commissioners of the Federal City—a group authorized to buy land and erect government buildings for what became the District of Columbia. On 5 August 1791 Washington temporarily commissioned Johnson an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court to replace John Rutledge; despite serious misgivings about circuit riding, he accepted. The Senate confirmed Washington's recess appointment on 7 November 1791; Johnson took the oath of office on 6 August 1792.

On circuit, Johnson sat on the initial trial of Ware v. Hylton (1796), a suit involving debtors' responsibility for repayment of revolutionary war debts. At virtually the same moment, he wrote the Court's first opinion in Georgia v. Brailsford (1792), a suit in equity testing the state's right to sequester Loyalist property (see State Sovereignty and States' Rights). A majority granted Georgia's motion for a permanent injunction against Brailsford's claim; in dissent, Johnson and Justice William Cushing argued that the bill did not support a motion for an injunction in federal court because legal remedies had not been exhausted.

Failing health prompted Johnson's resignation from the Court on 16 January 1793. In retirement, Johnson participated actively in Frederick County politics and church affairs; when Washington died in December 1799, his old friend delivered a poignant funeral oration in Frederick. Although Johnson fought a losing battle with physical infirmity, his mind remained sharp. He died in his sleep at Rose Hill mansion; days before his death, he told a relative that his fondest wish was to “meet Washington beyond the grave.”

Bibliography

• Edward S. Delaplaine, Life of Thomas Jefferson (1927).
• Maeva Marcus and James R. Perry, eds., Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800, vol. 1 (1985)

— Sandra F. Van Burkleo

English architect, he designed the County Gaol, Warwick—now the County Council offices—(1779–82), one of the earliest uses of Greek Doric in an English public building. He also built the Church of St Nicholas, Warwick (1778–9), and rebuilt St Mary's, Hanbury, Worcs. (1792–5), both in the Gothic style. The Warwick church was reputedly designed by his son, John Lees Johnson (1762– ), who was then not 16 years old, but who seems to have predeceased his father.

Bibliography

• Colvin (1995)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

• Born: Nov. 4, 1732, Calvert County, Md.
• Education: Studied law under Stephen Bordley, Annapolis, Md.
• Previous government service: Maryland Provincial Assembly, 1762; Annapolis Convention, 1774; Continental Congress, 1774–77; governor of Maryland, 1777–80; Maryland House of Delegates, 1780, 1786–88; Maryland Ratifying Convention, 1788; chief judge, General Court of Maryland, 1790–91
• Appointed by President George Washington as a recess appointment Aug. 5, 1791; replaced John Rutledge, who resigned; nominated by Washington Oct. 31, 1791
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Nov. 7, 1791, by a voice vote; resigned Jan. 16, 1793
• Died: Oct. 26, 1819, Frederick, Md.

Thomas Johnson was an American patriot who fought for the United States in the War of Independence. He became a friend of George Washington, who appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1791.

Johnson served on the Court for only 14 months and wrote only one opinion for the Court. President Washington later appointed Johnson to the committee that planned the new federal city. In 1795, Johnson refused Washington's offer to become secretary of state, and he retired from public life.

Thomas Johnson was the first governor of Maryland. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates in the early 1780s and was chief judge of the Maryland General Court from 1790 to 1791. Johnson was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1791, where he served a brief and uneventful term before resigning because of poor health.

Johnson was born November 4, 1732, to Thomas Johnson and Dorcas Sedgwick Johnson, in Calvert County, Maryland. Johnson was one of twelve children, and he received no formal education as a child. His parents sent him to Annapolis, Maryland, to work as a registry clerk at the land office under Thomas Jennings. Following his apprenticeship, Johnson began to study law in the office of Stephen Bordley, an Annapolis attorney. He was admitted to the bar in 1760, and practiced law before entering politics.

In 1766 Johnson married Ann Jennings, the daughter of his former instructor at the Annapolis land office. They were married for twenty-eight years, until Ann died. They had eight children.

From 1762 to 1773, Johnson was a member of the Maryland colonial assembly. In 1765 he became famous for his strong opposition to the Stamp Act, which was the first tax imposed on the colonists by Great Britain. Johnson was named a delegate to the Maryland convention in 1774, and a Maryland representative to the First Continental Congress, in Philadelphia. He also served on a committee that drafted a petition of grievances to King George III. Johnson formally nominated George Washington before the Continental Congress in 1775 for the position of commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Johnson supported the Declaration of Independence, although he was not present in Philadelphia on the day it was signed. He voted for Maryland's independence on July 6, 1776, and contributed to the new state constitution that year. During the American Revolution, he served in the Maryland militia as first brigadier general. In 1777 Johnson led nearly two thousand men from Frederick, Maryland, to General Washington's headquarters in New Jersey. Also in 1777 Johnson was elected the first governor of Maryland, from which position he was able to provide crucial assistance in keeping Washington's army peopled and equipped. Johnson continued to serve as Maryland's governor until 1779, when he declined a fourth term. He entered the Maryland House of Delegates in 1780.

Johnson also pursued interests outside of politics. In 1785 he helped organize the state-chartered Potomac Company. This company grew from Johnson's idea to improve navigation along the Potomac River and open a passageway to the West Coast. Johnson began the company with the help of his good friend Washington, who served as president of the company. In the end the enterprise proved unprofitable.

In 1788 Johnson supported ratification of the U.S. Constitution at the Maryland Constitutional Convention. From 1790 to 1791, he served as chief judge of the Maryland General Court. In 1791 President Washington nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Johnson was hesitant to serve on the Supreme Court because at that time each justice was responsible for riding circuit court duties. Chief Justice John Jay assured Johnson that every effort would be made to relieve the rigors of the circuit court duty, but Johnson was assigned to the Southern Circuit, which included all the territory south of the Potomac. Johnson sought a reassignment. When Jay refused to accommodate that request, Johnson resigned, citing poor health. He had served as an associate justice for just over one year. During his brief and uneventful Supreme Court tenure, he had authored only one opinion.

Johnson continued his public service, becoming a member of the board of commissioners of the federal city, appointed by President Washington to plan a new national capital on the Potomac. That commission voted to name the new city Washington and selected a design submitted by Pierre L'Enfant. Johnson was present in September 1793 when the cornerstone for the new Capitol was laid.

President Washington nominated Johnson to serve as secretary of state in 1795, but Johnson declined. Instead, Johnson retired to Frederick, Maryland, where he died October 26, 1819.

Thomas Johnson
Thomas Johnson portrait by Charles Willson Peale.
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office August 5, 1791 – January 16, 1793
Nominated by	George Washington
Preceded by	John Rutledge
Succeeded by	William Paterson
1st Governor of Maryland
In office March 21, 1777 – November 12, 1779
Preceded by	None(Office Created)
Succeeded by	Thomas Sim Lee
Born	November 4, 1732 Calvert County, Maryland
Died	October 26, 1819 (aged 86) Frederick, Maryland
Signature

For other persons named Thomas Johnson, see Thomas Johnson (disambiguation).

Thomas Johnson (November 4, 1732 – October 26, 1819) was an American jurist with a distinguished political career. He was the first elected Governor of Maryland, a delegate to the Continental Congress and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Contents 1 Background 2 Revolutionary years 3 Federal years 4 Later life 5 Monuments and memorials 6 References 7 See also 8 External links 9 Further reading

Background

Johnson was born in Calvert County, Maryland, on November 4, the son of Thomas and Dorcas Sedgwick Johnson. His grandfather, also named Thomas, was a lawyer in London who emigrated to Maryland sometime before 1700. He was the fourth of ten children, some of whom also had large families. (His brother Joshua's daughter Louisa Johnson married John Quincy Adams.)

The family, including Thomas, were educated at home. The young man was attracted to the law, studied it, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1753. By 1760, he had moved his practice to Frederick County, Maryland. He was also elected for the first time to the provincial assembly in 1761. This Thomas Johnson married Ann Jennings, the daughter of an Annapolis judge on February 16, 1766.

The couple had eight children: Thomas Jennings, Ann Jennings, Rebecca (who died in infancy), Elizabeth, Rebecca Jennings, James, Joshua, and Dorcas.^[1]

Revolutionary years

In 1774 and 1775 the Maryland assembly sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In the Congress he was firmly in the camp of those who favored separation from Great Britain. In 1775, Congress created a committee of Secret Correspondence that was to seek foreign support for the war. Thomas Johnson was a committeeman along with Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Benjamin Harrison and John Jay.^[2]

He returned to Maryland and continued his work in the Assembly so he missed the chance to join in the United States Declaration of Independence. But in 1775 he did draft a declaration of rights adopted by the Maryland assembly. The declaration was later included as the first part of the state's first constitution, which was adopted for Maryland by the state's constitutional convention at Annapolis in 1776. He also began his service as brigadier general in the Maryland militia. In addition to his political activities, he and his brother Roger supported the revolution by manufacturing ammunition.^[3] The remains of their factory, Catoctin Furnace, is located just north of Frederick, Maryland.

As Maryland began to exercise its newly declared autonomy, the state legislature elected Thomas as the state's first Governor in 1777. He served in that capacity until 1779. In the 1780s he held a number of judicial posts in Maryland, and served in the assembly in 1780, 1786, and 1787. In 1785 he was one of the commissioners from Maryland and Virginia that met at Mount Vernon to agree on jurisdiction and navigation rules for the Potomac River. He attended the Maryland Convention in 1788, where he successfully urged the ratification of the United States Constitution.

Federal years

In September of 1789, President George Washington nominated Johnson to be the first federal judge for the District of Maryland, but he declined the appointment. In 1790 and 1791, Johnson was the senior justice in the Maryland General Court system. In January of 1791, President Washington appointed him, with David Stuart and Daniel Carroll, to the commission that would lay out the federal capital in accordance with the Residence Act of 1790. Among other contributions, in September 1791 the commissioners named the federal city "The City of Washington" and the federal district "The Territory of Columbia".^[4]

In 1791, Washington also appointed Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Court after John Rutledge resigned. Johnson was the author of the Court's first written opinion, Georgia v. Brailsford, in 1792. He served on the court until January of 1793, when he resigned due to the difficulties of circuit-riding with his poor health, giving him the shortest tenure on the Court ever.^[5] His health also made him decline Washington's 1795 offer to make him Secretary of State, an office for which Thomas Jefferson had recommended him. On February 28, 1801 President John Adams named him chief judge for the District of Columbia.

Later life

His daughter Ann had married John Colin Grahame in 1788, and in his later years he lived with them in a home they had built in Frederick, Maryland. The home, called Rose Hill Manor, is now a county park, and is open to the public (a high school with his namesake is on half of the Rose Hill property). Thomas was in very poor health for many years. He did deliver a eulogy for his friend George Washington at a birthday memorial service on February 22, 1800. He died at Rose Hill on October 26, 1819, and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

Monuments and memorials

More than one school is named after Thomas Johnson, e.g., Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Maryland, Governor Thomas Johnson Middle School in Frederick, Maryland, Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Maryland and Thomas Johnson Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1978, the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge was opened to traffic after being named for Johnson. The bridge crosses the Patuxent River and connects Calvert County, Maryland with St. Mary's County, Maryland.

References

1. ^ Delaplaine, Edward S. (1927), The Life of Thomas Johnson: Member of the Continental Congress, First Governor of Maryland, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Westminster, Maryland, USA: Willow Bend Books, p. 492 
2. ^ "Secret Committee of Correspondence/Committee for Foreign Affairs, 1775-1777". U. S. Department of State. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/ar/91718.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-21. 
3. ^ "Catoctin Iron Furnace". U. S. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/archive/cato/culthist/furnace.htm. 
4. ^ Crew, Harvey W., Webb, William Bensing, Wooldridge, John (1892), Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C., United Brethren Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio, Chapter IV. "Permanent Capital Site Selected", pp. 87-88, 101 in Google Books
5. ^ "Oyez: Thomas Johnson". Oyez: U. S. Supreme Court Media. http://www.oyez.org/justices/thomas_johnson/. 

See also

Catoctin Furnace List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

List of United States Chief Justices by time in office List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office United States Supreme Court cases during the Jay Court

External links

• Thomas Johnson (Maryland) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• Thomas Johnson (Maryland) at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Johnson gravesite in Frederick, Maryland
• Rose Hill Manor Park web pages
• Maryland archives image of 1776 Declaration of Rights
• Thomas Johnson at Oyez Project, U.S. Supreme Court media.
• Thomas Johnson at Find a Grave
• Thomas Johnson letters - C. Burr Artz Public Library

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3. 
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1568021267. 
• Delaplaine, Edward (1998 paperback edition). The Life of Thomas Johnson: Member of the Continental Congress, First Governor of Maryland, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Heritage Books. ISBN 1-58549-687-1. 
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L.. eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0791013774. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058356. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0815311761. 

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Robert Eden as Royal Governor	Governor of Maryland 1777–1779	Succeeded by Thomas Sim Lee
Legal offices
Preceded by John Rutledge	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1791–1793	Succeeded by William Paterson

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Supreme Court of the United States
The Jay Court Chief Justice: John Jay (1789–1795) 1792–1793: Wm. Cushing | J. Wilson | J. Blair | J. Iredell | Th. Johnson

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