Politician. His Wikipedia page shows that he was elected as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for the southern division of Essex in 1868, but lost the seat at the 1874 election. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1866, and served as High Sheriff of Essex from 1880–1881. When the Essex County Council was set up in 1889, he was elected as its first chairman, and served in the post for 27 years.
He founded the Wilfrid Lawson Temperance Hotel at Woodford, where he lived, and was a verderer of Epping Forest from 1878 to 1887.
He was born on 23 May 1835 in Marylebone, the eldest of the six children of Andrew Johnston (1800-1862) and Priscilla Johnston née Buxton (1808-1852). His mother was a daughter of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786-1845). In the 1841 census he is shown as living in Halesworth, Suffolk, with his parents, three siblings: Euphemia Johnston (1837-1914), Fowell Buxton Johnston (1839-1914) & Sarah Maria Johnston (1841-1935), together with five female servants. His father's occupation was recorded as a banker. His two remaining siblings were: Priscilla Hannah Johnston (1842-1912) & Catherine Isabel Johnston (1844-1915).
On 14 September 1858 he married Charlotte Anne Trevelyan (1836-1921) at St Martin's Church, Church Street, Epsom, Surrey, where the marriage register shows him as a merchant from the parish of All Hallows the Great in the City of London and his wife as a spinster residing in Epsom. They had one child, Beatrice Priscilla Johnston, who was born in 1860 and who unfortunately died in infancy, aged 2 years, in 1862.
The 1861 census describes him as an iron merchant in London living at The Mount, Oatlands Park, Walton on Thames, Surrey, with his wife, their daughter Beatrice Priscilla Johnston, a nurse, a cook, an under-nurse and a parlour-maid.
In the 1871 census he is listed as a Member of Parliament living at 16 Albert Mansions, Victoria Street, Westminster, with his wife, his sister - Priscilla Hannah Johnston, together with a lady's maid. The 1891 census shows him described as the chairman of both Essex County Council and of an ironmonger company living at Forest Lodge, Prospect Lane, Woodford, Essex, with his wife, together with a cook and a housemaid.
Probate records confirm that he died, aged 86 years, on 28 February 1922 and that his address had been Forest Lodge, Woodford Green, Essex. Probate was granted on 9 June 1922 to both Cecil Wilson esquire and to his nephew Miles Johnston M.B. (1870-1940) who was the son of his brother Fowell Buxton Johnson. His effects totalled £38,367-12s-11d. His death was registered in the 1st quarter of 1921 in the West Ham registration district, Essex.
Photo credit: Essex County Council.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk and Andrew Behan.
