Hugh Johnston (January 4, 1756 – November 29, 1829) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born merchant and politician in

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. He represented St. John County in the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

from 1802 to 1820. He was born in

Morayshire Moray; ( gd, Moireibh ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It w ...

, the son of William Johnston and Isabel Hepburn. He married Ann Gilzean. He set up business at

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

in the 1780s. Johnston traded fish and lumber for sugar and molasses from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

which was used to manufacture

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

in Scotland. In 1806, he married Margaret Thurburn after the death of his first wife. Circa 1821 he and John Richard Partelow purchased the ship , and transferred her registry to St John. ''Prince Regent'' had been built in New Brunswick and traded between Liverpool and New Brunswick until she was wrecked in November 1823. Johnston was a director of the

Bank of New Brunswick The Bank of New Brunswick, established in 1820, was the first Canadian bank to operate under a charter. The bank operated independently in New Brunswick and later in Prince Edward Island until it merged with the Bank of Nova Scotia (now Scotiabank ...

and a port warden for the harbour at Saint John. With others, he helped establish the first

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

church in New Brunswick. Johnston was named a magistrate for St. John County in 1818. He died in Saint John at the age of 73. His son Hugh Johnston, Jr. also served in the New Brunswick assembly.

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Hugh 1756 births 1829 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Colony of New Brunswick people Colony of New Brunswick judges Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation New Brunswick Canadian magistrates