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Mini
Biographies of Scots and Scots Descendants (J)
Johnston,
Samuel |
| 1733–1816, political leader in
the American Revolution, b. Dundee, Scotland. He emigrated as a child to
North Carolina, where his uncle, Gabriel Johnston,
was royal governor. After being admitted to the bar, he was a member of
the colonial assembly (1759–75) and of its standing Committee of
Correspondence after 1773. He was elected to the four provincial
congresses (1774–76), presiding at the third and at the fourth, which
passed the Halifax Resolves declaring for independence of the colonies;
served in the new state senate; and represented North Carolina in the
Continental Congress (1780–82). Johnston was governor of North Carolina
(1787–89) and presided over the convention that rejected the U.S.
Constitution (1788) and over the one (1789) at which North Carolina
finally ratified it. He was one of the state’s first U.S. Senators
(1789–93), a judge of the superior court (1800–1803), and one of the
first trustees of the Univ. of North Carolina. |
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