| Notes |
- "James C. Johnston died a bachelor. He was a gentleman of the old school, literary, cultured, and noted for his immense wealth, his lavish generosity and his many eccentricities. He was a warm friend and ardent admirer of Henry Clay. When this great statesman became heavily involved James C. Johnston voluntarily and without the knowledge of his friend paid off Clay's indebtedness, amounting to about forty thousand dollars. He had a great appreciation of real worth wherever found, even in the humblest walks of life. Upon one occasion his overseer so pleased him by industry and diligence that he presented the astonished man with a check for one thousand dollars in addition to his regular pay. Upon the death of Malachi Haughton, his trusted attorney, Mr. Johnston had a handsome shaft erected to his memory in St. Paul's churchyard, bearing these lines:
A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod,
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
James C. Johnston died May 9th, 1865. Many years previous to his death he had designed his own sarcophagus, two immense blocks of solid white marble of equal size, fitting one upon the other, the exact shape of a coffin being carved out of the center. The metallic coffin with its silent occupant has rested in this safe repository for fifty years, and will doubtless remain intact for centuries to come.
During his later life Mr. Johnston became alienated from his family, and by a holographic will bequeathed his vast estate to three chosen friends. His family contested the will on the ground of mental alienation. It is doubtful whether any case ever tried in the courts of North Carolina has presented a greater array of legal talent than did this famous Johnston Will Case. Both the prosecution and the defense were represented by some of the ablest jurists of the State, conspicuous among whom were Zebulon B. Vance, John Pool, William A. Graham, Baxton Bragg, Henry Gilliam and William Moore.
It was from the old Johnston burying-ground at Hayes that the remains of Justice Wilson were removed to Philadelphia. And here Gov. Samuel Johnston, James C. Johnston and the Iredells, father and son, lie buried."
Source Information: Pool, Betty Freshwater. Literature in the Albermarle. Baltimore, MD: The Baltimore City Printing and Binding Co., 1915. 165. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Mar. 30, 2005 http://www.lib.ecu.edu/ncc/historyfiction/document/pol/entire.html
"The Hayes Library is a replication of the early nineteenth-century library at Hayes Plantation, which is located in Edenton, in Chowan County, N.C. Displayed here is most of the plantation library's original collection of books, as well as other furnishings and art works provided to the North Carolina collection by John Gilliam Wood, the present owner of Hayes. The library contains nearly 1,800 volumes, with imprints dating from the late 1500s to the 1860s.
Originally the property of James Cathcart Johnston, the plantation house and its library were built between 1814 and 1817 and were designed by William Nichols, an English architect who later became state architect of North Carolina. Architecturally, the library itself was ahead of its time in the United States, in large part due to its Neo-Gothic elements, a style not widely used in this country until the late 1830s. An adherent to the Palladian school of architecture, Nichols strove for symmetry and balance in form in his designs. This accounts for the repeated use of the octagon in this room. Nichols' use of angled bookshelves in the library's corners established an eight-sided room. At the library's center sits an eight-sided table that has eight legs that are planed on eight sides.
James C. Johnston was one of North Carolina's most prosperous planters. He inherited his extensive holdings from his influential father, Samuel Johnston, a native of Scotland who had immigrated to North Carolina with his family as a small child. Samuel was very well-connected politically. His uncle was Gabriel Johnston, North Carolina's royal governor from 1734 to 1752. Later, Samuel served North Carolina in the General Assembly and as state governor himself from 1787 to 1789. Through Samuel and his great-uncle, James inherited his fine collection of books, which he enlarged considerably over the years. In fact, in the decades prior to the Civil War, the collection at Hayes was among the largest libraries in North Carolina.
James never married. Consequently, he made his vast holdings the lifelong focus of his attention, spending most of his time managing and augmenting his father's estate. By the 1860s, James owned many thousands of acres worked by hundreds of slaves. At his death in 1865, he bequeathed Hayes to a trusted business associate, Edward Wood, whose descendant today remains the owner of the plantation house and its related properties."
North Carolina Collection Gallery Historic Rooms, Hayes Library. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. March 30, 2005. http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/gallery/rooms_hayes.html
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1782 - 1865 (82 years)
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