RARE 1775 DOCUMENT SIGNED BY PROMINENT LOYALIST GUY JOHNSON, RESPONSIBLE FOR THE "BURNING OF THE VALLEYS"

Legal manuscript document. Stone Arabia, Tryon County, [New York], December 1774. 2 pages, folio. WITH Autograph letter signed by John Stiles to Peter Loux. Tryon County, circa Jan. or Feb. 1775. WITH Manuscript note SIGNED BY GUY JOHNSON (ca 1740-1788). Tryon County, [New York], 15 March 1775. Complete document 3 pages, folio, 7 5/8 x 12 3/8 in. Docketed to verso. 

A legal document that records a complaint by James Jackson against John Stiles regarding a "declaration of ejectment" in the December 1774 term of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in Tryon County, New York (later Montgomery County). 

Upon receiving the complaint, Stiles forwards the document to Peter Loux, and writes: "I am informed you are in possession or claim title to the Premises in this Declaration of Ejectment mentioned, or to some part thereof and I being sued in this action as a casul ejector and having no claim or title to the said presmises do adivse you to appear on the second Tuesday of March next. Following the letter, the document records that oaths were sworn, and the document was submitted to the court, signed boldly by Guy Johnson ("GJohnson / Judge"). 

Guy Johnson (c. 1740–1788) migrated from Ireland to New York in 1756 to work under his uncle, Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. As his deputy, he became well educated about the Mohawk and Iroquois. In 1774, Guy succeeded his uncle as Superintendent. He also served as a county judge (in which capacity he signed this document), as well as a colonel in the Tryon County militia and a member of the Province of New York Assembly. 

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Johnson remained loyal to the British Crown, and attempted to control the Tryon County courts, assisted by fellow loyalists, John Johnson (his cousin), and Colonel Daniel Claus (son-in-law to his late uncle, Sir William). The three also commanded three regiments of the Tryon County militia. Ousted by local patriots, they fled to Canada. Johnson worked to form alliances with the Mohawk and Iroquois to retake New York for the British. Eventually he directed joint British-Mohawk military operations against the colonials in the Mohawk Valley, known as the "Burning of the Valleys."

A very rare document signed by loyalist Guy Johnson in 1775.