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452 prepared a plan of campaign; but the peace of Aix-lii-Chapelle stopped all operations. In April, 1750, he was appointed by the king a member of the governor's council. The revival of the Albany board of Indian commissioners in 1753 led to a quarrel between the colonists and the Indians, and the council and assembly of the province urged Col. Johnson to effect a reconciliation. The gov- ernor granted him a special commission, 5 July, 1753, and he went to Onondaga, where he held a council and succeeded in settling the difficulty, but declined having anything further to do with Indian affairs. He lived then at Fort Johnson, a large stone dwelling that he had erected on the north side of the Mohawk, directly opposite War- rensburgh, and which he had fortified in 1743, shortly before the beginning of the war with the French. It is still standing in good preservation, about three miles west of the present village of Amsterdam. In 1754 he attended, as one of the delegates from New York, the congress of Albany and the great council that was held with the Indi- ans on that occasion, at which they strongly urged his reappointment as their superintendent. At the council of Alexandria, 14 April, 1755, he was sent for by Gen. Braddock, and commissioned by him "sole superintendent of the affairs of the Six United Nations, their allies and dependants." He was also, according to the determination of that council, created a major-general, and appointed commander-in-chief of the provincial forces for the expedition against Crown Point. At the head of these forces, in September, 1755, Johnson utter- ly defeated Baron Dieskau at Lake George. He was wounded in the hip early in the action, but re- mained on the field of battle. This victory saved the colony from the ravages of the French, pre- vented any attack on Oswego, and went far to counteract Braddock's disastrous defeat on the Monongahela. Gen. Johnson received the thanks of parliament for this victory, was voted £5,000, and on 27 Nov., 1755, was created a baronet of Great Britain. It was on his arrival at Lake St. Sacrement on this occasion, and a few days before this battle, that he gave to that lake the name of Lake George, " not only," in his own words, " in honor of his majesty, but to assert his undoubted dominion here." In March, 1756, he was commis- sioned by George II. " colonel, agent, and sole su- perintendent of the affairs of the Six Nations and other northern Indians," with a salary of £600, which was paid by Great Britain. He held this office for the rest of his life. In 1756 and 1757 he was engaged with his Indians in the abortive at- tempts of the British commanders to relieve Oswe- go and Fort William Henry; and in 1758 he was present with Abercrombie at the repulse of Ticon- deroga. In Gen. Prideaux's expedition against Fort Niagara in 1759, Sir William Johnson was second in command, and on the death of Prideaux by the explosion of a gun before that fort, he suc- ceeded to the command in chief. He continued the siege with great vigor, routed the French force under Aubry that had been sent to its relief, and then summoned the garrison, which surrendered at discretion. In the following year, 1760, he led the Indians in the Canadian expedition of Amherst, and was present at the capitulation of Montreal and the surrender of Canada, which ended forever the French power in America. The king granted to Sir William for his services a tract of 100,000 acres of land north of the Mohawk, which was long known as Kingsland or the Royal Grant. His influence alone prevented the Six Nations as a whole from joining Pontiac in the war of 1763, though he could not prevent some acts of hostility by the Senecas. In 1764 Sir William built "Johnson Hall" (which is shown in the accompanying illustration), a large wooden edifice still standing near the village of Johnstown, a few miles north of " Fort Johnson." This village, called after his

own name, had already been laid out by him, and the building of stores, an inn, a court-house, and an Episcopal church, all chiefly at his own ex- pense, soon followed. Numerous settlers were brought in, the surrounding country was improved, and in three years Johnstown became a thriving village and in 1772 the shire town of Tryon county. Sir William gave great attention to agriculture, and was the first that introduced sheep and blood- horses into the valley of the Mohawk. He lived in the style of an English baron, exercising the most unbounded hospitality. As head of the In- dian department he concluded the great treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and his death actually resulted from over-exertion in addressing an Indian council on a very warm day. In 1739 he married Catharine Wisenburgh, daughter of a German settler on the Mohawk, who died young, leaving him with three children, a son, John, who was knighted in 1765, and two daughters, Anne and Mary, who married respectively Col. Daniel Claus and Col. Guy Johnson. Sir William never married again. He had for some years afterward many mistresses, both Indian and white, and one of his earlier ones, a German, has been the probable cause, from being confounded with his wife, of the erroneous statement that has been made that none of his children were legitimate. Mary, or as she is generally called " Molly," Brant, the sister of Thayendanegea, or Joseph Brant, the Mohawk sachem, whom later he took to his house, and with whom he lived happily till his death, has sometimes been termed his wife ; but they were never married. He had eight children by her, whom he provided for by his will, in which he calls them his "natural children." The church under which he was buried was burned in 1836 and rebuilt, but not exactly on the old site. In 1862 the vault was discovered with its top broken in. His remains were removed, the vault repaired, and were then reinterred therein on 7 July, 1862, Bishop Horatio Potter, of New York, officiating. Sir William was the author of a valuable paper entitled "The Language, Customs, and Manners of the Six Nations," written to Arthur Lee, secretary of the Philosophical society of Philadelphia, and published in their " Transactions " for November, 1772. His A r oluminous correspondence with the British and the colonial governments, published in the colonial and documentary histories of New York, are extremely well written and absolutely necessary to a correct understanding of the history of New York and of America in general. His life has been written by William L. Stone (2 vols., Albany, 1865). — Sir William's son, Sir John, bart., b. in " Mount Johnson," on Mohawk river, 5 Nov., 1742; d. in Montreal, Canada, 4 Jan., 1830, was educated under his father's direction by clergymen