I will try to pull together some of the information you have received on
John Johnson.

John, Mary [also called Polly] and Anne [also called Nancy] were the
children of Catherine Weissenberg and William Johnson.  There is no record
of a formal marriage, but John Johnson does indicate a document being
presented as proof of their marriage in order to receive his title of
baronetcy.  That document seems to have disappeared in the intervening
years.

Sir William, as noted, did refer to Catherine as his wife in his will and he
asked to be buried next to her.  That did not [or for some reason could not]
take place.  We still do not know where Catherine is buried.  Sir William
was buried under the altar of the original Johnstown church [St. John's] in
Johnstown but is now in an enclosed space in the park because the church
burned and was moved when rebuilt.  There was a gold ring and shoe buckle
found in the coffin when the church burned, but there is some question about
the time the date may have been engraved on the ring, which simply adds more
speculation on the date of a marriage [or if there was a marriage].

Sir William and Mary [Molly] Brant would have definitely been considered
married according to the custom of the Mohawks.  She bore William 8 children
who survived--six girls and two boys.  The biography of Mary Brant is
available from the Old Fort Niagara Foundation and is authored by Bonnie
Pulis [interpreter at Johnson Hall] and Lois Huey [archeologist, NYS, who
worked at Johnson Hall for many field seasons].  The biography investigates
every to-date known document concerning Molly Brant.

John Johnson's liason with Clarissa Putman produced three children, who were
cared for by John via Daniel Campbell [Schenectady] his entire life.  Sir
John Johnson's wife was Mary [Polly] Watts of New York City.  John and Mary
had 14 children, several of whom died.  There is still a direct line of
descent who still maintain the title of baronetcy.  Sir Peter Johnson is the
7th baronet; his son will be the 8th baronet; his grandson will be the 9th
baronet Sir William Johnson.

Please feel free to ask more questions, and we will try to answer them--
--Wanda Burch, Site Manager
Johnson Hall STate Historic Site

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2000 9:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sir William Johnson's wives?


 Hello

I am on the AMREV-HESSIANS-L and the coordinator, John Merz,
had posted this book he is reading. Since he is probably one of
the places to locate Hessian and other related information, he
was very pleased with the writing of this book so far.

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?

The Iroquois leader Thayendangea whose Christian name was
Joseph Brandt  was the brother-in-law of Sir William Johnson.

The book is:
"The burning of the Valleys", subtitle "Daring Raids from Canada
against the New York Frontier in the Fall of 1780."
It was published by the Dundurn Press, Toronto, 1997.
The book is by Gavin K. Watt
(with research assistance by James F. Morrison)