SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON

of the new colonists and to serve as a trading-
station with the Indians. In compensation for his
services he was to be allowed to cultivate a part of
the land for himself, though it is hard to imagine
what time or strength could have been left for
further exertions after the fulfillment of the onerous
duties marked out for him.

A few years after his arrival at Warrensbush he
married a young Dutch or German woman named
Catherine Weisenberg, perhaps an indentured ser-
vant whose passage had been prepaid on condition
of service in America. Little is known of the date
or circumstances of this marriage. It is certain
only that after a few years Catherine died, leaving
three children, to whom Johnson proved a kind and
considerate father, in spite of an erratic domestic
career which involved his taking as the next head
of his household Caroline, niece of the Mohawk
chief Hendrick, and later Molly Brant, sister of
the Indian, Joseph Brant.

Molly Brant, by whom Johnson had eight
children, was recognized as his wife by the Indians*
while among Johnson's English friends she was
known euphemistically as "the brown Lady John-
son." She presided over his anomalous household
with dignity and discretion; but it is noticeable