John Johnson (5 November 1741 – 4 January 1830) was a Brigadier-General in the British Army who commanded the King's Royal Regiment of New York during the American Revolutionary War.
Biography[]
John Johnson was born on 5 November 1741 in Amsterdam, New York, the son of Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weisenberg. John studied at The Academy and College of Philadelphia, and he served in the French and Indian War alongside his father. In 1771, he became the last provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons, and he became a wealthy landowner on the death of his father in 1774. In January 1776, Johnson formed the King's Royal Regiment of New York, a Tory regiment in the service of the British Army, and he took part in raids on the Mohawk Valley from Canada. After the war, he lost his estate to the patriots, who confiscated Tory property; he helped in resettling loyalists to Upper Canada after the war's end. He died in 1830 in Montreal while serving as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Great Britain.