JOHN
JOHNSON
FREE
BLACK COLONIST OF DELAWARE
AT
REHOBOTH BAY 1670
When
John Johnson, a free black, settled on the Rehoboth Bay shore in
1670,
his forefathers had been in America longer that any other colonist
in
southern Delaware. His family had arrived at Jamestown, Virginia
aboard
a small sailing vessel, the White Lyon, in 1619. This was one year
before Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock and twelve years before
the
Dutch
settled on Lewes Creek.
Aboard
the White Lyon were several Africans which were indentured to
English
resident of Jamestown. John Johnson's father , Anthony, was one
of
them. Anthony worked off his indenture and moved to Virginia's
Eastern
Shore
at Northampton, then in 1665 moved to Somerset county, Maryland.
Here
the family settllled on the south side of Wicomico Creek on a leased
300
acre's and had one slave, 14 head of cattle, a mare, and 18 sheep.
Anthony
passed away in before 1670 and John, one of his sons, came to
Delaware,
acquired a 400 acre tract on Rehoboth Bay. For the next three
decades
the Johnson family was an active member of southern Delaware's
Sussex
colonial community. In 1684 records is fact that the estate of
Nathaniel
Bradford was in custody of John Johnson, the Negro.
1704,
John Johnson, 80 years of age, old and unable to care for himself,
the
Sussex county court ordered that 50 shillings of public money be
spent
for keeping and maintaining John Johnson, an old free Negro.
Abstract:
Michael Morgan's Delaware Diary, Delaware Coast Press, 2019.
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