04 Works, Today, April 16th, is Mary Brant’s day, With Footnotes — #102
Three Faces of Molly Brant
Mary Brant, (born 1736? — died April 16, 1796, Kingston, Ontario [Canada]), Native American leader, an influential and effective Iroquois ally to Great Britain in the American Revolution and later a founder of Kingston, Ontario.
Brant was of the Mohawk tribe, the daughter of a sachem (chief). Sometime in the late 1750s she came to the attention of Sir William Johnson, hero of Crown Point in the French and Indian War and superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern colonies. Following the death of his wife, he took a Mohawk woman as his mistress. Brant succeeded her and bore him eight or nine children while living with him at Fort Johnson and later Johnson Hall, his manorial estate. She also managed his household and entertained many distinguished Native American and colonial guests…