At 09:30 AM 7/2/00 -0400, you wrote:

>He noted that one of the first item was what the author in
>describing the main figures of that epic struggle, says about Sir John
>Johnson (see page 28) "Sir William's son John, born a bastard to
>Johnson's first love, the Palatine German woman Catherine (Catty)
>Weisenberg, followed in the footsteps of his father."
>
>John Merz always believed that Catty was the first wife of Sir William,
>and Molly Brandt his second.  Does anyone have any information
>about these women in his life?
>
Hi there:
I do not doubt the accuracy of Gavin's research at all. I will say that
there are some semantic issues at play here. Baptismal records indicate
that Catherine Weisenberg was listed as mother of John, Nancy and Polly
Johnson. They do not state who the father is. To my knowledge, no evidence
has ever been found that Sir William formally married Catty Weisenberg. It
appears to have been a common law marriage, as we would now refer to such
situations, but there is no record of a church sanctioned ceremony.

There is likewise no evidence of a sanctioned church marriage between Sir
William and Mary Brant, though she bore him several children.

As for Sir John, he too apparently cohabitated with a woman who bore at
least one of his children, prior to his marriage to Nancy Watt.

I'm working from memory - books and papers are at home, but the sources are
the published bio of Mary Brant (from listmember Wanda Burch), the
published bio of Sir John, and several of the published bios of Sir William.

regards,

Greg Ketcham
webmaster,
"Drums Along The Mohawk: the American Revolution on the New York Frontier"
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4171