JOHNSON, JOHN MERCER SR (1791-1859)

JOHNSON, JOHN MERCER SR, accountant, businessman, and high sheriff, 1840-48; b. England, c1791; m. 1st Ellen - , and 2nd, 1840, Elizabeth (Grahl) Blackstock, wid/o Richard Blackstock; d. Chatham, 14 Mar 1859.

John M. Johnson Sr was a lumber merchant in Liverpool, England, before he came to the Miramichi in 1818 and entered business in Chatham. In 1826 he was a general merchant and auctioneer. For a long time he was the only Miramichi auctioneer who handled real estate sales. He was also an accountant and frequently acted as a receiver for failed businesses.

Between 1830 and 1840 Johnson was a coroner in Chatham. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1839 and was named to the full-time position of high sheriff of the county in 1840. He was a highly respected official, but when he distanced himself from the Chatham faction in the political events of the early 1840s, an effort was made to discredit him and block his reappointment as sheriff. His conduct, and that of other office holders in the county, was made the subject of a 'grand inquest' in 1844. In his case, he was not only exonerated but praised for having exercised "extreme moderation and impartiality...under the most critical and trying circumstances."

Johnson resigned as sheriff in 1848 when told by the magistrates that he would have to move to Newcastle in order to continue to hold the position. This requirement had not been imposed previously and was unrealistic in light of the low salary attached to the post and the rivalry which existed between the two towns. When he quit, The Gleaner speculated that the persons who had raised the matter would soon regret having done so. Certainly, later Chatham sheriffs were not required to live in Newcastle.

Johnson was the foremost leader in the voluntary sector on the Miramichi. He was one of the three first officers of the Chatham Fire Company, which was formed in 1824 and conducted in accordance with an act of the Assembly. In 1827 he was secretary of the Miramichi chamber of commerce. In 1830 he was a member of a committee, with Dr Alexander Key and William Carman, which established a Reading Room in Chatham. In 1852 he was elected president of the Miramichi Mechanics' Institute, and the next year he addressed the Mechanics on "Barriers to Progress on the Miramichi," the text of which was published in The Gleaner. He was president of the Institute again in 1857-58.

Johnson was elected to the presidency of the Miramichi Fishery Society in 1854 and of the Miramichi Agricultural Society in 1856, retaining both presidencies until his death. He was an officer in the militia for many years, having been appointed a lieutenant in 1826 and promoted to captain in 1836. He was a warden and treasurer of St Paul's Anglican Church. To quote The Gleaner, both his public and private actions were characterized by "punctuality, decision, and the strictest integrity."

Johnson and his first wife were the parents of Ann Johnson, the wife of the businessman Alexander P. Henderson of Chatham, and of Catherine Johnson, John M. Johnson, William Cross Johnson (bap. 1822), and possibly other children. Johnson's second wife, Elizabeth (Grahl) Blackstock, died at Chatham in 1877, at age eighty-seven.