Individual Details

Event

Arrived in New England with the Winthrop fleet
at Salem, Jun. 22, 1630.

Event

He settled at Roxbury, MA and was made Freeman on
May 18,1631. Subsequently served town and colony in many capacities,
including Constable (first on Oct. 19,1630), Surveyor General, Town Clerk,
Deputy to the House of Deputies, and Clerk of the Military Company of
Massachusetts. The position as Surveyor General of Arms and Ammunitions of
the Colonies made Capt. Johnson responsible for the acquisition, maintenance and
distribution of the primary means of protection.

Event

Feb. 6, 1645:
John Johnson, the Surveyor General of Arms and Ammunition, a very
industrious and faithful man in his place, having built a fair house in the ƒ midst
of the town, with divers barns and outhouses, it fell on fire in the day time, no
man knowing by what occasion, and there being in it seventeen barrels of the
country's powder, and many arms, all was suddenly burnt and blown up, to the
value of four or five hundred pounds, wherein a special providence of God
appeared, for, he, being from home, the people came together to help and many
were in the house, no man thinking of the powder till one of the company put
them in mind of it, whereupon they all withdrew, and soon after the powder
took fire and blew up all about it, and shook the houses in Boston and
Cambridge, so that men thought it had been an earthquake, and carried great
pieces of timber a great way off, and some rags and such light things beyond
Boston meeting house, there being then a stiff gale south, it drove the fire from
the other houses in the town (for this was the most northerly) otherwise it had
endangered the greatest part of the town.

Death

John's will, dated Sep. 30, 1659 (the day he died) and proved Oct. 15, 1659
names son Isaac as co-executor.
John was one of the founders of the town and church at Roxbury, MA and,
together with his sons Isaac and Humphrey, was an original donor to the Free
School in Roxbury.