George Johnston (Royal Marines officer)

Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston (19 March 1764 – 5 January 1823) was a Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales from 1794 to 1795 and again from 1806 to 1808. After serving in the American War of Independence, he served in the East Indies theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars before volunteering to accompany the First Fleet which established the colony of New South Wales in 1788.

In New South Wales, Johnston served as an adjutant to Governor Arthur Phillip before joining the New South Wales Corps, and played a key role in suppressing the Castle Hill convict rebellion in 1804. He led his troops in deposing Governor William Bligh in the Rum Rebellion in 1808, which led to Johnston to being court-martialled and cashiered from the military. In his later life, he returned to New South Wales as a private citizen, raising a family in the colony and establishing a successful farm around Annandale in Sydney.

Johnston was born on 19 March 1764 at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the son of Captain George Johnston, aide-de-camp to Lord Percy, later the 2nd Duke of Northumberland. Percy obtained a commission for the 12-year-old Johnston as second lieutenant of marines on 6 March 1776. Johnston went to America with his regiment, and took part in the American War of Independence, serving in New York and Halifax during 1777 and 1778, after which he was promoted to first lieutenant.^[1] During the campaign, his father was killed.^[2] The Duke of Northumberland, who had held Johnston's father in high regard, became Johnston's guardian.^[3]

The young officer subsequently acted as a recruiting officer in the United Kingdom before serving aboard HMS Sultan in the East Indies in 1781, and suffering a severe wound in action against the French.^[4][5] Returned to garrison duty in Portsmouth, he volunteered to join the New South Wales Marine Corps, which would accompany the First Fleet to New South Wales. He sailed for Australia aboard the convict transport Lady Penrhyn in 1788.^[4][5][6]

On arrival in New South Wales, Johnston served as adjutant to Governor Arthur Phillip, and was promoted in 1789 to the rank of Captain-Lieutenant of Marines. He transferred from the New South Wales Marine Corps to the locally raised New South Wales Corps in 1791 with the rank of captain.^[4][5][7]

Johnston received extensive land grants in areas of modern Petersham, Bankstown and Cabramatta. Johnston's other grants included land which is now the suburb of Annandale, named for his property that was in turn named after the place of his birth. He and Esther Abrahams farmed and lived on Annandale with their children.^[8]

On 26 January 1808, Johnston played a key role in the only successful armed takeover of a government in Australia's recorded history, the Rum Rebellion, working closely with John Macarthur.^[7]

Johnston was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on 25 April 1808, and was superseded by his senior officer Joseph Foveaux, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island, on 28 July. Johnston sailed for England with John Macarthur in March 1809 (and Henry Fulton as a witness) and was tried by court-martial in May 1811. He was convicted of mutiny and sentenced to be cashiered.^[7]

Johnston returned to New South Wales in May 1813 as a private individual and in November the following year at St John's Church in Parramatta he married Esther Abrahams,^[9] a Jewish convict whom he had met on the transport Lady Penrhyn in 1787. The couple had already had seven children together by that time, and they lived on his land at Annandale Farm, Sydney.^[8][10] He died on 5 January 1823. He was first interred in a private mausoleum on his Annandale property, until its subdivision to become an inner-city suburb. His remains were moved to a new mausoleum at Waverley Cemetery in 1904.^[7]

The suburb of Georges Hall is named after the farmhouse of the same name on land grants Johnston received near the junction of the Georges River and Prospect Creek. This building still exists, and is now one of Australia's oldest houses. Johnston and Esther Abrahams and their children farmed and lived on Annandale until the 1870s, when the property was sold and sub-divided for residential development. The main street of Annandale is named after Johnston, and the gates of their property now stand in the grounds of Annandale Public School.^[7]

• Binney, Keith Robert (2005). Horsemen of the First Frontier (1788–1900) and the Serpent's Legacy. Neutral Bay, New South Wales: Volcanic Productions. ISBN 978-0-64644-865-7.
• Da Cruz, Marghanita (30 September 2015). Annandale's Great War: A Short Walk (2nd ed.). Annandale, New South Wales: Lulu. ISBN 978-1-32638-933-8.
• Moore, John (1987). The First Fleet Marines. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702220655.
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Johnston, George". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
• Silver, Lynette Ramsay (1989). The Battle of Vinegar Hill: Australia's Irish Rebellion, 1804. Sydney: Doubleday. ISBN 0-86824-326-4.
• Yarwood, A. T. (1967). "Johnston, George (1764–1823)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 2. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. pp. 20–22. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 18 August 2009.

• North, Jessica (2019). Esther: The extraordinary true story of the First Fleet girl who became First Lady of the colony. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760527372.

• George's Hall, Major Johnston's Bankstown Estate
• Annandale House connection to Johnston at the Wayback Machine (archived 16 June 2005)