Local figure
Samuel Johnston of Edenton, the leader of North Carolina's Federalists, was elected unanimously as president of the July 1788 convention at Hillsborough, which decided not to ratify the Constitution. He had convened the Third Provincial Congress in August 1775 and served as its president, and in 1789 he became the first trustee elected to the University of North Carolina.
Source: NCpedia: Johnston, Samuel (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
1733–1816 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗
18 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 2 works by Samuel Johnston.
Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.
Governor Samuel Johnston's letters from April 1788, a few months into his term. Frontier matters run through them: the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations, the breakaway State of Franklin, Joseph Martin, Alexander McGillivray and the Spanish envoy Diego de Gardoqui. Surry County and Hillsborough are named. Twenty-four images.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
July 1788, the month a state convention met at Hillsborough to weigh the federal Constitution, fills 62 images of Governor Samuel Johnston's papers. Correspondents include Henry Knox, Thomas Pinckney, Montfort Stokes, Joseph Martin and Stockley Donelson, and the State of Franklin and Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek affairs recur.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
The provincial congress of North Carolina met at Hillsborough on 20 August 1775, and this copy of its journal records the delegates and their proceedings as the colony moved toward war. Samuel Johnston, Richard Caswell, Samuel Spencer and Thomas Wade are among the men named, with delegates drawn from Anson, Rowan and other counties. The congress sat in Orange County. Reference CO 5/318.
Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.
Letters Samuel Johnston of Edenton sent Governor Josiah Martin in 1775 after his suspension from naval service on accusations of neglected duties and crimes. The correspondence turns on administration, law and order, voting and impeachment, intelligence and the unrest of the opening Revolution. Hillsborough is among the North Carolina places the file names, and the papers sit in the secretary of state's correspondence.
Why this is here: Its title names this person.
Ceiling detail in the Hayes Library room of the North Carolina Collection Gallery at UNC. The room reproduces the library at Hayes Plantation in Edenton, whose house went up from 1814 to 1817 for the planter James Cathcart Johnston, son of Governor Samuel Johnston. NC ECHO photograph, 6 May 2002.
Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Samuel Johnston's correspondence as governor, December 1787 to 10 December 1789, with undated items, in 109 images. Johnston presided over the 1789 convention at which North Carolina ratified the federal Constitution. Topics include commerce, tobacco, debts, enemy property and Indian wars. Elijah Robertson is among the correspondents, and Hillsborough and Orange County appear.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Correspondence of Samuel Johnston, the state's sixth governor, for April 1789, the year he presided over the convention that ratified the federal Constitution. Charles McDowell is among the writers, and Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek affairs and the State of Franklin recur. Hillsborough is named. Fourteen images.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Samuel Johnston, governor of North Carolina from late 1787 to late 1789, received and wrote these letters in January 1789. Etheldred Philips is among the writers. Topics include the State of Franklin and the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations, and Hillsborough is named. Sixteen images.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Governor Samuel Johnston's correspondence for June 1789, 14 images. Francis Child is among the writers, and George Washington, newly inaugurated as president, is named. Bertie County, Hillsborough, the State of Franklin and Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek matters also appear.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Hugh Williamson, one of North Carolina's delegates in Congress, writes in these March 1789 letters of Governor Samuel Johnston. The 18 images also concern the State of Franklin and the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations, with Hillsborough among the places named.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
August 1788 papers of Governor Samuel Johnston, 42 images. Montfort Stokes, Hugh Williamson, Richard Winn and Charles Thomson are among the correspondents. Relations with the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek peoples and the State of Franklin run through the month, and Hillsborough is named.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Letters to and from Governor Samuel Johnston in December 1788, 32 images. Richard Winn is among the writers, and John Sevier, the French Broad River country and the State of Franklin figure, along with Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek affairs. Johnston's administration saw Sevier arrested and Franklin come apart. Hillsborough is named.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
January 1788 correspondence of Samuel Johnston, who had taken office as governor the month before. Anthony Bledsoe and James Robertson appear among the correspondents, with Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek matters. Hillsborough is among the places named. Twenty images.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Lectures on North Carolina's Revolutionary generation that R. D. W. Connor gave at the State Normal and Industrial College in the spring of 1913. A survey of the colony and state from 1765 to 1790 is followed by studies of four leaders: John Harvey, Cornelius Harnett, Richard Caswell and Samuel Johnston. Published in 1916 as the college's Historical Publications no. 2; reprinted in 1971, 125 pages.
Storylines this person is part of, earliest first. Each has its own page.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
People named in the same dated entries as Samuel Johnston, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.
The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Samuel Johnston, search these catalogs.
Searched with the Library of Congress heading Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816, so the results are about this person and not others with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.
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Picture: Samuel Johnston. Public domain. www.ncssar.com; via Wikimedia Commons
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