Samuel Johnson IV (1794 - 1854)

Born 27 Jul 1794 in Harbour Island, Bahama Islands

Ancestors

Husband of Amelia Ann (Saunders) Johnson — married 21 Dec 1842 in Harbour Island, Bahamas

Descendants

Died 4 Mar 1854 at age 59 in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas

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Samuel Johnson IV is part of a Bahamian family.

Biography

Samuel Johnson was born in 1794 in Harbour Island, Bahamas to Samuel Johnson and Mary Higgs Johnson. He was christened 11 March 1795 at Christ Church, Nassau, Bahamas.

Samuel married three times: first, about 1818-1820, to Mary Curry, daughter of Joseph Curry and Patience Roberts Curry; second, in 1842, at Wesley Methodist Church, Harbour Island to Amelia Ann Saunders; and third, in 1852, to Eliza Hartwell Brady Kelly, widow of Henry Edward Kelly, in Harbour Island.

Mary and Samuel Johnson had three known children together: Mary Elizabeth Wilson Johnson, Thomas Frederick Johnson, and Rebecca Pugh Johnson. Amelia Ann and Samuel Johnson had children - among them Sarah Elizabeth Pearson Johnson, Charles Penny Johnson, and Samuel Hartwell Johnson. A daughter, Loretta Hartwell Johnson, was born in 1853 to Eliza and Samuel Johnson. All of the children were likely born in Harbour Island.

Samuel Johnson served as a Lieutenant in the Harbour Island Militia as noted in the 1831 Bahama Almanac. He also registered 13 slaves in the 1831 Bahamas Slave Registration. In 1836, Samuel Johnson received £131 9S 2D from the British Parliament as compensation for emancipating his enslaved people.

Samuel Johnson, planter, died in Nassau, Bahamas March 1854 at 59 years of age. He left a will that was written in 1845 - executors Henry Rowland Saunders, WH Sears, James A Higgs, and Henry R Saunders, Jr.

Will excerpts:

..Samuel JOHNSON, for love and affection for his daughters, Mary Elizabeth Wilson (JOHNSON) CURRY wife of Joseph William CURRY, and Rebecca (JOHNSON) LIGHTBOURN wife of Paul LIGHTBOURN, conveyed to those daughters 2/3 of a tract of land on the Island of Eleuthera, on Craskil (sic) Hill, and a lot in Dunmore Town in Harbour Island, being declared in the last will of the late Samuel Stuart JOHNSON as bequeathed by him to the grantees, but in consequence of a flaw in the will the grantor became entitled to claim the lands..

..Item, I constitute Thomas JOHNSON and William SAUNDERS Guardians of the persons and estate of my children Sarah Elizabeth Pearson, Charles Penny, Thomas William and Samuel JOHNSON.."

Sources

Christ Church, Nassau, Bahamas Birth & Baptism Records, 11 March 1795.

St. John's Parish, Wesley Methodist Church, Harbour Island, Bahamas.

1831 Bahama Almanac, Nassau, Bahamas.

Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834, Bahamas, 1831, #503.

Samuel Johnson', Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146002734 [accessed 10th August 2018].

"Bahamas Civil Registration, 1850-1959," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRSG-J78?cc=1922411&wc=Q4ZG-N36%3A216280801 : 20 May 2014), Deaths 1854-1855 > image 24 of 258; Registrar General, Nassau.

Bahamas National Archives, Nassau, Bahamas, Wills, Johnson, Samuel, 1854. Or see Book K4, page 620.

Notice placed in The Nassau Guardian 20 May 1854 by the Executors of Samuel Johnson's Estate.