Henrietta Johnston - portrait of Lady Johnson, 1728 (page 69 crop)

Sir Nathaniel Johnson (7 April 1644 – 1 July 1712) was a soldier and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne, 1680–1689. He was governor of the

Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...

(1686) and the

Province of Carolina Province of Carolina was a province of England (1663–1707) and Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It is part of present-day Alaba ...

(1703–1709).

Biography

Nathaniel Johnson was born on 7 April 1644, near Kibbelsworth, Durham. He joined the British Army in his youth. Eventually, he joined the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne, 1680–1689. In 1686, he was appointed governor of the

, governing Treves, Saint Kitts,

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

, and

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

. He travelled to the

in 1689, becoming its governor in 1703. While he started his government sanctioned "a blow at the Spanish interest directed against Louisiana and Florida: the Apalachee expedition of 1704". In 1702, while he governed there, he oversaw the defense of Charles Town against an attempted Franco-Spanish assault. In addition, he created the Parish system in this colony. Johnson rejected the constitutions of church and state because he believed these were dissenters of all denominations. So, to reduce or eliminate their power and influence, the Commons House of Assembly established a new bill that expulsed to the dissenters (who were mostly in South Carolina) of the Common House. The bill forced to the people who would want to be chosen in the Assembly accept and practice the rites of the Church of England, doing an oath, subscribing to a declaration and receiving a sacrament own of this church. The dissenters refused this measure because they thought the governor had taken away their civil rights and religious liberties. The residents of Colleton County, elaborated and written about his "grievous circumstances" and gave it to the Lords Proprietors with order that they remove the law. It was enacted, that twenty lay-persons be constituted a corporation for the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with full power to deprive ministers of their livings at pleasure, not for immorality only, but also for imprudence, or on account of unreasonable prejudices taken against them. He ended his term in 1709 and died 1 July 1712 in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Johnson had, at least, two children: Robert, also a future Governor of South Carolina, and Ann (who married Gov. Thomas Broughton).

References

1644 births 1712 deaths People of the War of the Spanish Succession Colonial governors of South Carolina English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 {{17thC-England-MP-stub