Notes: This page will change frequently. I am currently researching a John Johnston of Bladen, now Robeson, who it appears married a Mary McAllister about 1735 or so, and had a daughter Margaret who married Archibald Little in 1756. The possibility of "Big John" Johnston and the John Johnston who married Mary McAllister having been one and the same man is very strong circumstantially. But "Big John" Johnston may have been the elder John's son. Careful study of existing Bladen County tax lists, Robeson County deeds and estate records reveal many parallels.
      John Johnston's surname was also spelled 'Johnson' in many deeds; the two names were interchangeable and by the early 1800s the family eventually fell into using the surname Johnson. The 'Johnston' spelling was used consistently in records of the late 1700s. Early Bladen County land entries for the Robeson area of old Bladen state that both John Johnston Sr. and Jr. lived on land they owned in 1753 on the north and south side of Pugh's Marsh, today's Little Marsh in Robeson County; now, however, I'm not sure the elder of the two men is "Big John" Johnston. These holdings were very near or adjacent the elder Phillip Ikner family. John Sr. and Jr. are easily confused; indeed, they are not definitively identified here and beg further research. There are deeds in Cumberland County wherein John Johnston of Robeson County is selling lands on Rockfish Creek and in Moore County in the 1790s, and it is logical that John Johnston Sr. and Jr. both came out of Cumberland.
     Three men, Patrick Kelly, John Little and Randal Currie are found in more than a few deeds concerning John Johnson and his family and in one deed the three men are relinquishing their claim on the lands of John Johnston, Senior, the titles for which were in the hands of John Johnston, Junior. It is my belief, based on the fact that Randal Currie married Nelly Johns(t)on, that Patrick Kelly and John Little also married Johnson women, probably daughters of either the father John Johnston or the son John Johnston.
     These two John Johnstons, presumably father and son, are found in the 1790 census of Robeson County close to one another, with one bearing a structurally-close resemblance to the children enumerated below. In the census itself, one of the John Johnstons is at the very beginning of the census and the other is at the very end; presumably, the beginning and the end are the same region of the county since there were no county districts named. There are also an Angus and an Alexander Johnston several houses away from the two Johns, and I do know that there was a different Johnson family--the Peter Johnson family--who lived in the far northern section of old Robeson, now Hoke County--and that particular family had both a Daniel and an Alexander Johnson who were contemporaries of these Johns(t)ons of Great Marsh. Our John Johnston also owned land far south of his Pughs Marsh holdings, and these lands were located around north of Raft Swamp and south of the Great Marsh. It appears that John Johnston Junior bought land around Ten Mile Swamp and Cowpen Branch there. He is likely the "Big John" Johnson whose land was inherited by Daniel Johnson and his brothers listed as children below. There are other Johnstons in the 1790 census but their first names are biblical (e.g., Absolom, Isaac, etc.) and bear no resemblance to any of the Johnstons in question.
     This chart changes with time and further research.