Godschall Johnson II

Claimed as owner-in-fee of Folly & Savanna on Antigua, the bulk of the compensation for which was paid to his step-mother Mary Johnson (q.v.) and her trustees for her jointure of £600 p.a.

1. Son of Godschall Johnson I (q.v.), the London financier and slave-owner (1745-1800), and his first wife Elizabeth Hodges.

2. Henry Edward Gale registered enslaved people on Folly and Savanna estates as attorney to Godschall Johnson in 1824 and 1832.

3. Administration of the will of Godschall Johnson HM Consul at Antwerp who died there 03/12/1857 was granted 27/10/1860 to Henry Godschall Johnson, one of the children, effects under £100.

4. Sir Francis Godschall Johnson (1817-1894), the son of Godschall Johnson II, has an entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography as 'lawyer, judge and officeholder'.

5. Another son of Godschall Johnson II, Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson (1812-1876), emigrated to Australia, arriving in Queensland c. 1854, and - reportedly punctuated by a period of insolvency - became clerk assistant to the Legislative Council in Queensland. Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson's great grand-daughter Mary Gertrude Godschall Johnson married Sir Charles William Davidson (1897-1985) in 1929: he has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography as 'politician, army officer and farmer.'

T71/877 Antigua no. 387.

1. Lady May Thornton, 'The Johnson and Godschall Johnson Families' (1972), http://www.geocities.ws/lordrichardcholmondeley/godschall.htm [accessed 09/04/2012], unsourced. This gives his death date as 1859: the National Probate Calendar 1860 shows him dying in 1857 at Antwerp.

2. T71/248 p. 263; T71/250 p. 384.

3. National Probate Calendar 1860.

4. Clinton O. White, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. 12 pp. 476-7.

5. Brisbane Courier 10/07/1876. The obituary gives his arrival date in Australia as 1847 and in Queensland as 1848, but the 1851 census showed Ralph Johnson living with his family at Broadwater, Sussex aged 37 'Retired Banker'; http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davidson-sir-charles-william-12404 [accessed 28/08/2019]

We are grateful to Jean Milne for her assistance with compiling this entry.