Johnston, Samuel, 1733-1816

Samuel Johnston (December 15, 1733 – August 17, 1816) was an American planter, lawyer, and statesman from Chowan County, North Carolina. He represented North Carolina in both the Continental Congress and as one of the state's first two United States Senators, and he was the sixth Governor of North Carolina.

Born in Dundee, Scotland, he came to America with his family in 1736 after his father settled in Onslow County in the Province of North Carolina. Educated in New England, Johnston read law in North Carolina, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Chowan County where he started his own plantation, known as Hayes, near Edenton. In 1759, he was elected to the Province of North Carolina House of Burgesses and would serve in that body until it was displaced in 1775 during the American Revolution. As a strong supporter of independence, he was also elected as a delegate to the first four provincial congresses and presided over the Third and Fourth congresses in 1775 and 1776. After the Royal Governor Josiah Martin abdicated in 1775, he was the highest-ranking official in the state until Richard Caswell was elected president of the Fifth Provincial Congress.

North Carolina sent Johnston as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780 and 1781. Johnston was elected the first President of the United States in Congress Assembled under the Articles of Confederation, but he declined the office. He was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1783 and 1784 and served as Governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789. Johnston presided over both of the state's conventions called to ratify the US Constitution. The one in 1788 rejected the Constitution in spite of Johnston's strong support. He called another convention in 1789, which decided on ratification. Johnston then resigned as governor to become one of the state's first two US Senators and served from 1789 to 1793. In 1800, he was made a Judge in the Superior Court of North Carolina, an office he held until his retirement in 1803.

Johnston died at Hayes Plantation and is buried in the Johnston Burial Ground there.