The only son of Joshua and Catherine Johnson, researchers disagree on Thomas' year and place of birth, most noting the year as most likely 1779, but most also noting in London. However, records are explicit as to the Johnsons having moved from London to Nantes, France in the Summer of 1778 (likely August), making that the location if that birth year is correct. His older sister, Mariane Johnson, was born in late Dec of 1777 in London, also making Thomas' conception and birth between that date and the Johnsons' departure in 1778 impossible. Birth and baptism records are found for all his older siblings in London prior to 1778, and two of his younger siblings upon the Johnsons' return. The only birth and baptism records missing to date are those of Thomas. His younger sister, Harriet, is confirmed as born in Nantes in 1781, per one account on 18 June, and was also noted as baptized on 13 Jan 1782. The church noted was "Nantois Protestant Church" in Nantes, for which no records can now be found. If correct, that may have been the Johnsons' church for their time there and where Thomas had also been baptized. The final conclusive proof for Thomas' birth in Nantes are the memoirs of his sister, Louisa Catherine Johnson (Adams), who noted the Johnsons returning to London in April of 1783 with another sister and her (only) brother having been born during their time there.

To date, few hard records are found to support any date or location, other than those for his siblings, but this year and location are clearly correct, this birth year and the corrected year of death, 1843, also agreeing with his then noted age, sixty-four.

As noted, he returned with his family to London in 1783, where he remained until 1794 when his father sent Thomas back to the new nation for further education. He settled in Boston under the care of Harrison Grey and Sally Foster Otis and undertook the study of Latin in preparation for his admission to Harvard. He entered that institution in November of 1795 and graduated in the class of 1799. As a young man he had shown promise and is noted as retaining his "mental powers", perhaps with qualifications, up until his death.

Little is known of his activities after Harvard, although recorded as returning to Washington, DC, and appearing to have lived in his parents' Georgetown home until his father's death in 1802. One interesting footnote is that George Washington had visited the Johnsons' home in Feb of 1798, Joshua then Superintendent of Stamps with the Treasury, inviting them to then visit him at Mount Vernon, which they did in May of 1799, Catherine and Joshua accompanied by recent graduate Thomas.

He received a political appointment in 1808/10 (accounts vary) as the deputy postmaster of New Orleans, and remained in that position until 1822 when he resigned due to "health issues" and returned to Washington. During his time in New Orleans, he reportedly set aside a small fortune for the time from his salary and other business activities, Thomas haunted by the legacy of his father, Joshua, falling into near poverty in his last years. Upon his return to Washington, this was turned over to his nephew, Charles Francis Adams, to be invested. Interestingly, Charles is noted repeatedly as managing the financial affairs of a number of his family relations through the years.

Per Adams family diary entries he arrived in Washington in May, "...a pitiful spectacle of a man in a dreadful state of suffering", although by all accounts more psychological than physical. His sister, Louisa Catherine Adams, accompanied by Thomas' and her niece and her future daughter-in-law, Mary Catherine Hellen, took him to Philadelphia in June where after some rest and preparation he underwent surgery, without anesthetics, in Aug of 1822. He survived, and lived another twenty-one years. The surgery was performed by the aptly named Dr. Philip Syng Physick, a noted surgeon of the time, his reputation based in part on the speed of his procedures, typically performed on fully conscious patients.

In 1824, per the same Adams family records, he effectively "retired", and was never employed again, it assumed that he lived somewhat modestly off returns of his (nephew's) investments.

Neither later family diary entries nor records provide many more specific details of Thomas, only brief biographical sketches. In those, he appeared eccentric and reclusive, a hypochondriac for much of his life, and with a "..self-absorption and self-deprivation of friends and society", plus "…nights…destroyed by horrible visions", some details of which are known but intentionally omitted here as inappropriate to recount.

From his own diaries from 1807 to 1838, retained by the Massachusetts Historical Society, researchers note that he "seems to have lived an obscure and wandering life" and that he spent much of his last years as a "valetudinarian in Europe", the details, other than a recorded departure for Europe in 1836 (his finances continuing to be managed in his absence by Charles Adams), and the date of his return to Washington unknown by this author. His diaries, noted as "voluminous and disorderly" are retained on microfilm, unavailable online, and have also not been reviewed by this author but are available to the public for those who might wish to research further.

In the interests of full disclosure: James Johnson Jr., 1774-1850, another of Thomas' extended family, wrote a letter to his offspring in 1842 which included a remark on his cousin: "Thomas, the only son now living (of Joshua and Catherine), was Post Master at New Orleans for many years, and had more of the feminine character than any person I ever knew. I am told he lives like a hermit, caring for nobody, and nobody caring for him". Although the tone of the letter makes it somewhat suspect, James saying nothing positive of Joshua, Catherine, or any of their offspring, his comment may offer some insight. If Thomas' orientation was not heterosexual, it would in part explain his preference for Europe, specifically Italy noted in one account, more "unofficially" tolerant than the US in that period, and his self-imposed solitude upon his return. A period diary entry by Charles Francis Adams noted his "secluded" residence in the District as north of Georgetown in Woodley, a then near rural area, as "consulting his taste for solitude". The neighborhood of Woodley remains, now west of the National Zoo, and was once also near land and a mill owned by his father's family, the Johnsons, and some later owned by his sister's husband, John Quincy Adams. His purchase of this property may have been though one or the other family connections.

He never married, and his estate, a then substantial $45,000, was distributed among his surviving sisters and at least one nephew, Johnson H Hellen, upon his death. John Quincy Adams wrote his will over a two night period of consultation, which Thomas signed in Washington on 25 Feb 1842, dying a year and a half later on 14 Oct 1843 in the evening "at ten minutes before six o'clock"...perhaps ironically "after a long illness". His inscription first appeared to have been carved with an incorrect year of death, 1845, as it still appears today, although that thought due weathering and/or damage, and was also commented upon over a century ago by previous family researchers. Regardless, two period letters from family members both agree on the specific date and year, 1843. From a once young man of "promise", he sadly left no legacy of accomplishment, only his estate, and was so obscure at the time of his death, despite his still prominent family, that no known obituary was published in Washington or elsewhere.

His youngest sister, Adelaide, had him interred in her Hellen family plot upon his death. He today shares that plot with his mother and two sisters, among others, the full details available on the memorial of his brother-in-law, and first cousin, Walter Hellen Jr.

His brother-in-law, John Quincy Adams, recorded attending his internment in his diary on Monday, 4 Dec 1843. He noted that the casket was placed "close by the side of his mother".

The attached image of him, dated 1820, is one of two known, a second painted in 1823, it is thought, by noted artist Charles Bird King.

Allan Garner - Rev: Oct 22, 2023.