Thomas Johnson (November 4, 1732 – February 22, 1819) was an American jurist with a distinguished political career. He was the first elected Governor of Maryland, a delegate to the Continental Congress and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Background

Johnson was born in Calvert County, Maryland, on November 4, the son of Thomas and Dorcas Sedgwick Johnson. His grandfather, also named Thomas, was a lawyer in London who emigrated to Maryland sometime before 1700. He was the fourth of ten children, some of whom also had large families. (His brother Joshua's daughter Louisa Johnson married John Quincy Adams.)

The family, including Thomas, were educated at home. The young man was attracted to the law, studied it, and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1753. By 1760, he had moved his practice to Frederick County, Maryland. He was also elected for the first time to the provincial assembly in 1761. This Thomas Johnson married Ann Jennings, the daughter of an Annapolis judge on February 16, 1766.

The couple had eight children: Thomas Jennings, Ann Jennings, Rebecca (who died in infancy), Elizabeth, Rebecca Jennings, James, Joshua, and Dorcas.

Revolutionary years

In 1774 and 1775 the Maryland assembly sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In the Congress he was firmly in the camp of those who favored separation from Great Britain. In 1775, Congress created a committee of Secret Correspondence that was to seek foreign support for the war. Thomas Johnson was a committeeman along with Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Benjamin Harrison and John Jay.

He returned to Maryland and continued his work in the Assembly so he missed the chance to join in the United States Declaration of Independence. But in 1775 he did draft a declaration of rights adopted by the Maryland assembly. The declaration was later included as the first part of the state's first constitution, which was adopted for Maryland by the state's constitutional convention at Annapolis in 1776. He also began his service as brigadier general in the Maryland militia.In addition to his political activities, he and his brother Roger supported the revolution by manufacturing ammunition.The remains of their factory, Catoctin Furnace, is located just north of Frederick, Maryland.

As Maryland began to exercise its newly declared autonomy, the state legislature elected Thomas as the state's first Governor in 1777. He served in that capacity until 1779. In the 1780s he held a number of judicial posts in Maryland, and served in the assembly in 1780, 1786, and 1787. In 1785 he was one of the commissioners from Maryland and Virginia that met at Mount Vernon to agree on jurisdiction and navigation rules for the Potomac River. He attended the Maryland Convention in 1788, where he successfully urged the ratification of the United States Constitution.

Federal years

In September of 1789, President George Washington nominated Johnson to be the first federal judge for the District of Maryland, but he declined the appointment. In 1790 and 1791, Johnson was the senior justice in the Maryland General Court system. In January of 1791, President Washington appointed him, with David Stuart and Daniel Carroll, to the commission that would lay out the federal capital in accordance with the Residence Act of 1790. Among other contributions, in September 1791 the commissioners named the federal city "The City of Washington" and the federal district "The Territory of Columbia".

In 1791, Washington also appointed Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Court after John Rutledge resigned. Johnson was the author of the Court's first written opinion, Georgia v. Brailsford, in 1792. He served on the court until January of 1793, when he resigned due to the difficulties of circuit-riding with his poor health, giving him the shortest tenure on the Court ever.His health also made him decline Washington's 1795 offer to make him Secretary of State, an office for which Thomas Jefferson had recommended him. On February 28, 1801 President John Adams named him chief judge for the District of Columbia.

Later life

His daughter Ann had married John Colin Grahame in 1788, and in his later years he lived with them in a home they had built in Frederick, Maryland. The home, called Rose Hill Manor, is now a county park, and is open to the public (a high school with his namesake is on half of the Rose Hill property). Thomas was in very poor health for many years. He did deliver a eulogy for his friend George Washington at a birthday memorial service on February 22, 1800. He died at Rose Hill on October 26, 1819, and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

Monuments and memorials

More than one school is named after Thomas Johnson, e.g.,Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Maryland, Governor Thomas Johnson Middle School in Frederick, Maryland, Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, Maryland andThomas Johnson Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1978, the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge was opened to traffic after being named for Johnson. The bridge crosses the Patuxent River and connects Calvert County, Maryland with St. Mary's County, Maryland.

References

1. Crew, Harvey W., Webb, William Bensing, Wooldridge, John (1892), Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C., United Brethren Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio, Chapter IV. "Permanent Capital Site Selected", pp. 87-88, 101 in Google Books

See also

• Catoctin Furnace
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

• List of United States Chief Justices by time in office
• List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Jay Court

External links

• Johnson gravesite in Frederick, Maryland
• Rose Hill Manor Park web pages
• Maryland archives image of 1776 Declaration of Rights
• Thomas Johnson at Oyez Project, U.S. Supreme Court media.
• Thomas Johnson at Find a Grave
• Thomas Johnson letters - C. Burr Artz Public Library

Further reading