Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

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Johnson
Arg. a chevron Sa. between three lions' heads couped Gu., langued Az., and crowned Or
(arms granted to Robert Johnson, B.D., Archdeacon of Lincoln). Az. a
chevron Or, in chief two eagles volant, in base a sun, of the second
(Johnson of Goldington, co. Bedford).
We now come to the second part of this monograph, which is to be
devoted to the family-history, so far as it can be made out, of Thomas
Johnson, a settler of Newark, as we have seen, not later than 1666, he
having been one of those "friends from Milford" who met agents from
Guilford and Branford, in that year " 'with reference to a township,' to be
occupied together by the two parties." * The New Haven Colony having
been his earlier home, we naturally look here for his parentage, and for
his family-history previous to the emigration to New Jersey. With this
object in view, we have carefully searched through the published Colonial
Records of New Haven ;
and the ancient town- and probate-records,
together with those of the First Church, of New Haven, have been also
examined. The conclusions arrived at by our friends and fellow-townsmen
Rev. Dr. Beardsley (in his " Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson,
D.D.") and Rev. Edward E. Atwater, an investigator in this field before us,
have been at hand. These various sources of information, taken together,
and all duly considered, enable us to present the following statements.
Within the first few years of the history of the New Haven Colony
appear there three individuals of the name of Johnson, two of whom we
know to have been brothers ; while a third, from the repetition of the
name of Thomas in later generations, with correspondences of dates and
other circumstances, may be safely inferred tp have been another brother.
** Stearns's First Church in Newark, ut supra, p. 12.
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