Sir William Johnson , 1st Baronet Sir William Johnson , 1st Baronet ( c . 1715 – 11 July 1774 ) was an Anglo - Irish official of the British Empire . As a young man , Johnson moved to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle , Admiral Peter Warren , which was located amidst the Mohawk , one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League . Johnson learned the Mohawk language and Iroquois customs , and was appointed the British agent to the Iroquois . Because of his success , he was appointed in 1756 as British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies . Throughout his career as a British official among the Iroquois , Johnson combined personal business with official diplomacy , acquiring tens of thousands of acres of Native land and becoming very wealthy . Johnson commanded Iroquois and colonial militia forces during the French and Indian War , the North American theater of the Seven Years War ( 1754 - 1763 ) in Europe . His role in the British victory at the Battle of Lake George in 1755 earned him a baronetcy ; his capture of Fort Niagara from the French in 1759 brought him additional renown . Serving as the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1756 until his death more than 20 years later , Johnson worked to keep American Indians attached to the British interest . Early life and career . William Johnson was born in County Meath , in the Kingdom of Ireland , around 1715 . He was the eldest son of Christopher Johnson ( 1687 - 1764 ) of Smithstown , Co . Meath and Anne Warren , daughter of Michael Warren of Warrenstown , Co . Meath and Catherine Aylmer , sister of Admiral Matthew Aylmer , 1st Baron Aylmer . His mother was from a Catholic " Old English " gentry family who had , in previous generations , lost much of their status to Protestant English colonists . Christopher Johnson was descended from the O ' Neill of the Fews dynasty of County Armagh . . William Johnson ' s paternal grandfather was originally known as William MacShane , but changed his surname to " Johnson " , the English translation of the Gaelic " Mac Seáin " . Some early biographers portrayed William Johnson as living in poverty in Ireland , but modern studies reveal that his family lived a comfortable , if modest , lifestyle . Although the Johnson family had a history of Jacobitism , William Johnson ' s uncle Peter Warren was raised as a Protestant to enable him to pursue a career in the British Royal Navy , which proved to be highly successful and lucrative . As a Catholic , William Johnson had limited opportunities for advancement in the British Empire . Never particularly religious , Johnson converted to Protestantism when offered an opportunity to work for his uncle in British America . Peter Warren had purchased a large tract of undeveloped land along the Mohawk River in the province of New York . Warren convinced Johnson to lead an effort to establish a settlement there , to be known as Warrensburgh , with the implied understanding that Johnson would inherit much of the land . Johnson arrived in about 1738 with twelve Irish Protestant families and began to clear the land . he purchased African slaves to do the work of clearing the land , the first of many that Johnson would buy . Warren intended Johnson to become involved in trading with American Indians , but Johnson soon discovered that the trade routes were to the north , on the opposite side of the river from Warrensburgh . Acting on his own initiative , in 1739 Johnson bought a house and small farm on the north side of the river , where he built a store and a sawmill . From this location , which he called " Mount Johnson " , Johnson was able to cut into Albany ' s Indian trade . He supplied traders with goods who were going to Fort Oswego , and he bought furs from them when they returned downriver . He dealt directly with New York City merchants and cut out the previous middlemen at Albany . The Albany merchants were irate , and Warren was not pleased that his nephew was becoming independent . Johnson became closely associated with the Mohawk , the easternmost nation of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League . By the time Johnson arrived , their population had collapsed to only 580 , due to infectious disease introduced by Europeans and warfare with competing tribes related to the lucrative beaver trade . The Mohawks saw in Johnson someone who could advocate their interests in the British imperial system . Sometime around 1742 , they adopted him as an honorary sachem , or civil chief , and gave him the name " Warraghiyagey , " which he translated as " A Man who undertakes great Things " . King George ' s War . In 1744 , the War of the Austrian Succession spread to colonial America , where it was known as King George ' s War . Because of his close relationship with the Mohawk , in 1746 Johnson was appointed as New York ' s agent to the Iroquois , replacing the Albany - based Indian commissioners . The newly created " Colonel of the Warriors of the Six Nations " was instructed to enlist and equip colonists and Indians for a campaign against the French . Recruiting Iroquois warriors was difficult : ever since the so - called Grand Settlement of 1701 , the Iroquois had maintained a policy of neutrality in colonial wars between France and Great Britain . Working with the Mohawk chief Hendrick Theyanoguin , Johnson was able to recruit Mohawk warriors to fight on the side of the British . Johnson organized small raiding parties , which were sent against the settlements of the French and their Indian allies . In accordance with New York ' s Scalp Act of 1747 , Johnson paid bounties for scalps , although he realized this encouraged the scalping of non - combatants of all ages and both sexes . In June 1748 , Johnson was made " Colonel of the New York levies " , a position that gave him additional responsibility for the colonial militias at Albany . In July 1748 , word was received of a peace settlement . The Mohawk had suffered heavy casualties in the war , which lessened Johnson ' s prestige among them for a while . In 1748 , Johnson built a new stone house upriver from Mount Johnson , which became known as Fort Johnson . The home was heavily fortified when the next war approached . In 1755 , Johnson shifted the primary meeting place for diplomatic councils between the British and the Iroquois from Albany to Fort Johnson . He also bought houses in Schenectady and Albany to stop at on his business trips to New York City . After King George ' s War , Johnson was caught between rival New York political factions . One faction was led by Governor George Clinton , who had appointed Johnson as New York ' s Indian agent and , in 1750 , appointed him to the Governor ' s Council . Governor Clinton urged the New York Assembly to repay Johnson ' s outstanding wartime expenses , which amounted to £2 , 000 . Repayment was blocked by Clinton ' s political rivals , a faction led by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey , who was connected to the Albany Indian commissioners whom Johnson had supplanted . De Lancey was also the brother - in - law of Admiral Peter Warren , which added to the strain in the relationship between Johnson and Warren . An exasperated Johnson resigned as New York ' s Indian commissioner in 1751 . When Warren died in July 1752 , he left nothing to Johnson in his will . Although Warren died a very wealthy man , in his will he required that Johnson repay the expenses incurred while settling Warren ' s land . French and Indian War . In June 1753 , Hendrick Theyanoguin and a delegation of Mohawk traveled to New York City , where they announced to Governor Clinton that the Covenant Chain — the diplomatic relationship between the British and the Iroquois — was broken . The British government ordered Clinton to convene the Albany Congress of 1754 to repair the Covenant Chain . At the Congress , the Mohawk insisted that the alliance would be restored only if Johnson were reinstated as their agent . Johnson ' s reinstatement as Indian agent came the following year , just as the French and Indian War was escalating . In 1755 , Major General Edward Braddock , sent to North America to direct the British war effort , appointed Johnson as his agent to the Iroquois . Although Johnson had little military experience , he was commissioned as a major general and instructed to lead an expedition against the French fort at Crown Point . His troops were provincial soldiers paid for by the colonies , and not regular soldiers of the British Army , which meant that he had to deal with six different colonial governments while organizing the expedition . Johnson initially had nearly 5 , 000 colonials at his command , but General William Shirley , the governor of Massachusetts who had been commissioned to lead a simultaneous expedition to Fort Niagara , shifted some of Johnson ' s men and resources to his own campaign . Tensions escalated as the two generals worked against each other in recruiting Native allies . The dispute was complicated by the unusual command structure : as Braddock ' s second - in - command , General Shirley was Johnson ' s superior officer , but when it came to Indian affairs , Johnson was theoretically in charge . In time , Shirley would blame the failure of his expedition on Johnson ' s refusal to provide him with adequate Indian support . According to the Johnson biographer Milton Hamilton , historians usually portrayed Johnson as acting unreasonably in the controversy with Shirley , but Hamilton argued that Johnson was reacting to Shirley ' s clumsy Indian diplomacy , which harmed the British relationship with the Six Nations . Crown Point expedition . Marching north into French territory , in August 1755 Johnson renamed Lac du Saint - Sacrement to Lake George in honour of his king . On 8 September 1755 , Johnson ' s forces held their ground in the Battle of Lake George . Johnson was wounded by a ball that was to remain in his hip or thigh for the rest of his life . Hendrick Theyanoguin , Johnson ' s Mohawk ally , was killed in the battle , and Baron Dieskau , the French commander , was captured . Johnson prevented the Mohawk from killing the wounded Dieskau , a compassionate rescue that would become famous in paintings of the event . The battle brought an end to the expedition against Crown Point , and Johnson built Fort William Henry at Lake George to strengthen British defenses . In December , tired of army life , Johnson resigned his commission as major general . General Shirley , who had become the commander in chief upon Braddock ' s death , sought to have Johnson ' s commission as Indian agent modified so that Johnson would be placed under his command . But Shirley was soon replaced both as governor and commander in chief , and Johnson ' s star was on the rise . Although the Battle of Lake George was hardly a decisive victory , the British needed a military hero in a year of major setbacks , and Johnson became that man . Claims that Johnson had been disabled by his wound early in the battle , and thus did not participate in the victory , did not reduce the recognition given to him . As a reward for his services , Parliament voted Johnson £5 , 000 and King George made him a baronet . " Never was such an insignificant encounter so generously rewarded " , wrote the historian Julian Gwyn . In January 1756 , the British government made Johnson sole Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies . This position gave him great influence and power , since he would report directly to the government in London and would not be controlled by provincial governments . Of all the Indian nations in the northern colonies , Johnson was most knowledgeable about , and most closely connected to , the Iroquois Six Nations , especially the Mohawk . As superintendent , he would make the Iroquois the focus of British diplomacy , promoting and even exaggerating the power of the Iroquois Confederacy . Johnson also began a long process of trying to control Iroquois diplomacy , attempting " nothing less than the refurbishment of the Iroquois confederacy with himself as its centre " . Capture of Fort Niagara . Although Johnson was no longer a British general , he continued to lead Iroquois and frontier militia . In August 1757 , after the French began their siege of Fort William Henry , Johnson arrived at Fort Edward with 180 Indians and 1 , 500 militia . Greatly overestimating the size of the French army , British General Daniel Webb decided against sending a relief force from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry . The British were compelled to surrender Fort William Henry , after which many were killed in an infamous massacre . Stories circulated that Johnson was enraged by Webb ' s decision not to send help , and that he stripped naked in front of Webb to express his disgust . With the war going badly for the British , Johnson found it difficult to enlist the support of the Six Nations , who were not eager to join a losing cause . In July 1758 , he managed to raise 450 warriors to take part in a massive expedition led by the new British commander , General James Abercrombie . The campaign ended ingloriously with Abercrombie ' s disastrous attempt to take Fort Carillon from the French . Johnson and his Indian auxiliaries could do little as British forces stormed the French positions in fruitless frontal assaults . In 1758 , with the capture of Louisbourg , Fort Frontenac , and Fort Duquesne , the war ' s momentum began to shift in favor of the British . Johnson was able to recruit more Iroquois warriors . In the summer of 1759 , he led nearly 1 , 000 Iroquois warriors — practically the entire military strength of the Six Nations — as part of General John Prideaux ' s expedition to capture Fort Niagara . When Prideaux was killed , Johnson took command . He captured the fort after ambushing and defeating a French relief force at the Battle of La Belle - Famille . Johnson is usually credited with leading or at least planning this ambush , but the historian Francis Jennings argued that Johnson was not present at the battle , and that he exaggerated his role in official dispatches . The conquest of Niagara drove the French line back from the Great Lakes . Once more , Johnson was celebrated as a hero , although some professional soldiers expressed doubts about his military abilities and the value of the Iroquois in the victory . Johnson commanded the " largest Native American force ever assembled under the British flag . " Johnson accompanied General Jeffrey Amherst in the final campaign of the war , the capture of Montreal in 1760 . With the fall of New France to the British , Johnson and his deputy George Croghan spent much time negotiating with the former Indian allies of the French . In 1761 , Johnson made a 1 , 000 mile ( 1 , 600 km ) round trip to Detroit to hold a conference with the regional American Indians . Johnson confronted the assembled chiefs about the anti - British rumors that were circulating among the Natives , and managed , for the time being , to forestall outright resistance to the British military occupation of the West . Normand Macleod met Johnson at this conference and returned with him to New York . Macleod was later appointed as commander of Fort Oswego , on Lake Ontario . Postwar development . After the French and Indian War , Johnson hoped to concentrate on expanding and improving his land holdings . In December 1760 , the Mohawk of Canajoharie gave Johnson a tract of about north of the Mohawk River . This grant proved to be controversial because other land speculators had already obtained licenses to purchase lands that the Mohawk released for sale , but Sir William had not . In 1769 , after years of maneuvering and lobbying , Johnson finally gained royal approval for the grant . This was one of several large tracts of land that Johnson acquired from the Mohawk and Iroquois using his position as a royal Indian agent . By the time of his death , Johnson had accumulated about and was one of tne of the largest land owners in British America , surpassed only by the Penn and van Rennsalaer families . . According to historian Julian Gwyn : In all this he acted no differently from dozens of other speculators in Indian lands . He was distinguished only by the great advantages he possessed through his office and through his long intimacy with the Indians . He was indeed one of their principal exploiters . . . In 1762 , Johnson founded the city of Johnstown on his grant , about west of Schenectady , New York , north of the Mohawk River . He named the new settlement , originally called John ' s Town , after his son John . There , at Crown expense , he established a free school for both white and Mohawk children . Outside the town , in 1763 he built Johnson Hall , where he lived until his death . He recruited numerous Irish immigrant tenant farmers for his extensive lands , and lived essentially as a feudal landlord . He also purchased African - American slaves to work as laborers , especially in his lumber operations . Johnson had some 60 slaves working for him , making him the largest slaveholder in the county and likely in the province , comparable to major planters of the South . In 1766 , Johnson organized St . Patrick ' s Lodge , No . 4 , a Freemason lodge , at Johnson Hall , and was installed as its master . His nephew Guy Johnson succeeded him as master of this lodge in 1770 . Johnson was a strong supporter of the Anglican Church in the colony . To counter the influence of French Catholic missionaries in western New York , in 1769 he paid for the construction of an Anglican church for the Mohawk of " Canajoharie " , a village the British called the " Upper Castle " . The building , later used by European - American congregations and known as Indian Castle Church , still stands near Danube , New York . It is part of the Mohawk Upper Castle Historic District , a National Historic Landmark . In 1771 , Johnson built St . John ' s Episcopal Church in Johnstown , but soon complained that it was " small and very ill built . " Within five years , he arranged for a larger church of stone to be constructed to accommodate the growing congregation in Johnstown . The historic church is still operating . Pontiac ' s War and final years . In 1763 , Pontiac ' s War resulted from Native American discontent with British policy following the French and Indian War . For several years prior to the uprising , Johnson had advised General Jeffrey Amherst to observe Iroquois dipolmatic practices , for instance , awarding gifts to Native leaders , a practice they considered an important cultural symbol of respect and significant to maintaining good relations . Amherst , who rejected Johnson ' s advice , was recalled to London and replaced by General Thomas Gage . Amherst ' s recall strengthened Johnson ' s position , because a policy of compromise was required with the Indians , and this was Johnson ' s domain . Johnson negotiated a treaty with Pontiac in 1766 , which finally ended the war . From July to August 1764 , Johnson negotiated a treaty at Fort Niagara with about 2 , 000 American Indians in attendance , primarily Iroquois . Although most Iroquois had stayed out of the war , the Seneca from the Genesee River valley had taken up arms against the British , and Johnson worked to bring them back into the Covenant Chain alliance . Johnson convinced the Iroquois to send a war party against the Seneca involved in the uprising , but otherwise the Iroquois did not contribute to the war effort as much as Johnson had desired . Johnson was a proponent of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , which called for tighter imperial control and restraint of westward colonial expansion . Johnson negotiated the details of the boundary defined in the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 . Against instructions from London , Johnson pushed the boundary to the west , enabling him and other land speculators to acquire much more land than originally authorized by the British government . Johnson was strongly criticized for exceeding his instructions , but many of the land speculators were well - connected in the government , and the expanded boundary was allowed to stand . Native American discontent continued to grow in the west in the 1770s . Johnson spent his final years attempting to prevent another uprising like Pontiac ' s War . Pursuing a policy of divide and rule , he worked to block the emergence of inter - tribal Native American alliances . His final success was his isolation of the Shawnee before Dunmore ' s War in 1774 . Marriage and family . In his lifetime , Johnson gained a reputation as a man who had numerous children with several European and Native American women . At the time , men were not ostracized for having illegitimate children , as long as they could afford it and supported them . One 20th - century scholar estimated that Johnson had perhaps 100 illegitimate children , but the historian Francis Jennings argued that " there is no truth in wild stories that he slept with innumerable Mohawk women . " In his will , Johnson acknowledged children by Catherine Weisenberg and Molly Brant , German and Mohawk , respectively , with whom he had long - term relationships . He implicitly acknowledged several other children by unnamed mothers . In 1739 , shortly after arriving in America , William began a relationship with Catherine Weisenberg ( c . 1723 – 1759 ) , a German Electorate of the Palatinate immigrant . She originally came to the colonies as an indentured servant , but had run away , perhaps with the help of friends or relatives . According to tradition , she was working for another family near Warrensburgh when Johnson purchased the remainder of her indenture contract , perhaps initially to have her serve as his housekeeper . There is no record that the couple ever formally married , ; Weisenberg was Johnson ' s common - law wife . The couple had three children , including daughters Nancy and Mary ( Polly ) , and a son John , first christened under only Weisenberg ' s name at Fort Hunter . The senior Johnson later arranged for his son John to inherit his title and estates as John Johnson . Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weissenberg were never married and so their son John was illegitimate and should never have inherited the baronetcy . This has now ( in 2013 ) been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Justice at the House of Lords in London by a 5 x great grand daughter of Catherine Weissenberg . At the same time , Johnson had a relationship with Elizabeth Brant , a Mohawk woman by whom he had three children : " Keghneghtago " or Brant ( born in 1742 ) , Thomas ( 1744 ) and Christian ( 1745 ) ; the latter two boys died in infancy . About 1750 , Johnson had a son named " Tagawirunta , " also known as William of Canajoharie , by a Mohawk woman , possibly Margaret Brant , Elizabeth ' s younger sister . Johnson may have also been intimate with the sisters Susannah and Elizabeth Wormwood , and an Irish woman named Mary McGrath , by whom he appeared to have had a daughter named Mary . Mary , Keghneghtago ( Brant ) , and Tagawirunta ( William ) received inheritances in Johnson ' s will . In 1759 , Johnson began a common - law relationship with Molly Brant , a Mohawk woman who moved into Johnson Hall and lived with Johnson as his consort for the rest of his life . Molly was the older sister of Joseph Brant ; her younger brother joined her and Johnson when he was young . Johnson ' s relationship with Molly gave him additional influence with the Mohawk . The couple had eight children , all of whom received land from Johnson in his will . Death and legacy . It is mostly believed that William Johnson died from a stroke at Johnson Hall on 11 July 1774 during an Indian conference . Guy Johnson , William ' s nephew and son - in - law ( he had married Mary / Polly ) , reported that Johnson died when he was " seized of a suffocation . " His funeral in Johnstown was attended by more than 2 , 000 people . His pallbearers included Governor William Franklin of New Jersey and the justices of the New York Supreme Court . He was buried beneath the altar in St . John ' s Anglican church , the church he founded in Johnstown . The next day chiefs of the Six Nations performed the traditional Iroquois condolence ceremony , and recognized Guy Johnson as Sir William ' s successor . During the American Revolution , the rebel New York legislature seized all of Johnson ' s lands and property , as his heirs were Loyalists . In 1960 Johnson Hall was named a National Historic Landmark . It is a designated State Historic Site and open to the public . Johnson ' s most important legacy is the comparatively peaceful co - existence of Anglo - American and Indians during his tenure as Indian Agent for British North America . As an adopted Mohawk chief and husband , according to Iroquois law , of Mohawk Mary Brant , he was a trusted counselor and member of Mohawk nation and , through that affiliation , the Five Nations of the Iroquois . That position gave him standing not only to lead Iroquois into battle on the side of the English , but also to negotiate two treaties of Fort Stanwix , modern day Rome , NY . While the treaties deprived many Indians of land without their knowledge , they gave favorable terms to the Iroquois , and resulted in decades of comparative peace between traditional Indian residents and new settlers . Co - existence was part of Johnson ' s other major historical legacy : the protection of British sovereignty and Anglo - American settlement as a bulwark against French control of northern New York State and the Great Lakes region more generally . Johnson was instrumental in sustaining British - Iroquois alliance through the Covenant Chain , which consolidated both Iroquois and British territorial and commercial interests against the rival Algoonquin and French interests in New France before 1763 . After Britain assumed control , Johnson eventually won a political dispute over Indian policy with Lord Jeffrey Amherst , who disdained the Iroquois alliance Johnson had so devoted himself to nurturing and defending . It was to Johnson that Pontiac finally surrendered after the eventual failure of the rebellion named for him . Old Fort Johnson , his first home built in 1749 , is on the Historic American Buildings Survey . It is currently the home of the Montgomery County Historical Society , which operates a museum , gift shop , and holds events . Guy Park Manor , built in 1773 , for Sir William ' s daughter Mary ( Polly ) and her husband , his nephew Guy Johnson , is also open to the public . In popular culture . The Johnstown High School mascot is the " Sir Bill " in Johnson ' s honor ( or " Lady Bill " for all - female teams ) . The teams ' sportswear often depicts Johnson ' s silhouette , wearing a tricorne hat . Johnson appears as an antagonist in the 2012 video game " Assassin ' s Creed III . " He is killed by game ' s Mohawk protagonist , . He is also a prominent character in the book " Manituana " by Wu Ming .