Peter Johnston, Sr.

http://www.johnstongenealogy.com/Peter%20Johnstone%20of%20Farmville...

Peter was christened 12 November 1710 at Saint Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Peter's father was said to have been a native of the traditional area of origin for Clan Johnston/e; Annandale, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. 3 Peter emigrated from Edinburgh to America in 1726 or 1727 and settled at Osborne's Landing on the James River in Virginia. 4 In 1736 Peter married Margaret Games. 5 Margaret died in 1756 in Culpeper County, Virginia. 6 On 17/19 March 1761, Peter, aged 50, married Martha Rogers, widow of Thomas Rogers the captain of a merchantman in the colonial service. 1 Martha was a daughter of John Butler, a merchant on the Appomattox below Petersburg. 5 Then in 1765 Peter and family moved to "Cherry Grove," an estate near Farmville, Prince Edward County. 6 Peter was a royalist, 7 and a successful merchant and planter. 8 He was a member of the established church, but when the presbytery of Hanover proposed building a college in Prince Edward he gave one hundred acres of land on which Prince Edward academy was erected in 1775, and in 1777 the name was changed to Hampden-Sidney college. 9 Peter and Martha had at least five sons. 10 Their eldest son, also named Peter, was intended for the ministry. He was taught by Scottish tutors and then entered Hampden-Sidney College. 11 In late 1779, against his father's Loyalist feelings, he quit college and ran away with a schoolmate to join Light Horse Harry Lee's legion. 12

After the revolution he studied law which mended the relationship with his father. 13 Subsequently he became a noted lawyer and judge. 14 He married a niece of patriot Patrick Henry and was the father of Confederate civil war General Joseph Eggleston Johnston. 15 The second son of Peter Johnston and Martha Rogers, Andrew, was the great-grandfather of well known historical novelist and suffragette Mary Johnston (21 November 1870-9 May 1936). 16 Peter was buried at "Longwood" (near Farmville), Prince Edward County, Virginia. 17 Peter fathered at least six children.