Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Guns and Horses Owned by Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831)

From Inventory and Appraisement of the Personal Estate of Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831). Peter Carr Johnston (1793-1877), administrator. Washington County, Virginia, Will Book No. 6, page 261, recorded August 27, 1832. Appraisers: George V. Litchfield (ca. 1797-1875), Valentine Baugh (1775-1851) and Robert R. Preston (probably 1793-1866, Abingdon banker. Note that his son attended VMI and that Peter Carr Johnston was on VMI's first Board of Visitors in 1839).

Peter Johnston, Jr., named his "guns" -- shotguns and long rifles:


Hailstorm  = $40.00 (roughly equivalent to $1075 in 2016)

McNought = $30.00 ($800 in 2016)
Sam Allen = $10.00 ($270 in 2016)

He had probably earlier given other named guns to his sons. Luckily, we have a pertinent account written by a great grandson, Dr. George Benjamin Johnston (1853-1916): "He [Peter] was a most ardent sportsman and kept for years a pack of hounds which would have done credit to an English hunt, and an armory of sporting guns that would almost stock a store. Of these, "Hornet," "John Bull," "Hailstorm" and others were named. Hailstorm is a venerable bit of artillery which I still preserve, a shot-gun of unusual size which Judge Johnston had made to order and which is cheerfully guaranteed to kill the gentleman who carries it through a day's hunt now, whatever it may do to the game." Source: George Ben Johnston, "The Johnston Clan," Kaleidoscope, Vol. XIV, Hampden Sydney College, 1908, page 21.


Horses (unnamed):


Sorrel mare and colt = $90

Sorrel = $50
Gray = $50
Sorrel filly = $30
Pair of carriage horses = $150
Sorrel horse (creel Jacket) = $55

Sorrel = chestnut color. Not sure exactly what "creel Jacket" refers to. Total = $425 for eight horses (about $11,500 in 2016 terms). Also a four-wheel carriage and harness valued at $40. 

Note that Mary Valentine Wood Johnston (1769-1825) had died in 1825; little is easily known about Peter's second wife, Ann Bernard (1775-1865) other than that she lived to be ninety and is buried in Richmond, Virginia.  

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