Despite having led the rebellion, Johnston was able to keep his land when he returned to Australia after an absence of four years. Esther had been left in charge of the estate in his absence. When George Johnston finally married Esther Abrahams in November , Roseanna and her husband were witnesses at the wedding. In , George Johnston died. Disputes followed over inheritance of the properties.
Her son David had been left property of his own. He issued a writ March against her, and proceeded to have her declared insane. Esther put up a strong fight, producing many witnesses to prove she was lucid. Robert won, and Esther went to live with her son David. Esther died in , and was buried beside her husband in the family vault on the Annadale property. When Johnston died on 5 January he bequeathed to his wife 'Esther Johnston or Julian' the estate of Annandale for her natural life. In the census she appeared as a free settler in possession of acres ha , but the years were beginning to take their toll.
In her son Robert instigated court procedures to have her declared insane and unable to administer her estates. The jury found her 'insane, but having lucid moments', for she was then probably becoming senile.
The jury also found that 'Robert Johnston was not heir at law' and application was made to the Supreme Court to appoint trustees for Esther's estate. She was buried in the Annandale family vault, and when it was demolished her coffin was transferred to the new Johnston vault at Waverley cemetery. An avenue of Norfolk Pines, thought to be the first in the colony, led up to the house. Esther Abrahams took to calling herself Mrs Esther Julian. Perhaps, in her still unmarried state, it sounded more genteel.
No-one seems to know for sure. Over the next ten years, despite Johnston being sent briefly to England and back, the couple had five more children — another boy and then four girls. One of the girls died before her third birthday but the others all lived into old age. Macarthur and Johnston were professional colleagues and occasional rivals. But in the small world of the colony, with husbands who were colleagues and gentlemen farmers, they must have at least been on nodding terms.
In Esther again held the fort at home while Johnston returned to England to face a court martial for his role in the overthrow of Governor Bligh.
If found guilty, he may well have faced the noose. Yet the trial of the rebel officers was, in the end, something of an anti-climax. While it was Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston who officially stood trial as the leader of the rebellion, the focus was also very much on the activities of civilian John Macarthur whose fingerprints were all over the rebellion and his nemesis Bligh.
None of the three men emerged very cleanly from the treasonous mire. And Macarthur himself began with his usual confidence and bluster but soon discovered that while his dissembling, evasions and outright contradictions might serve in a colonial kangaroo court, they soon dissolved in the face of fierce and intelligent cross-examination. When it was all over Johnston was found guilty of the act of mutiny but he was given the lightest of sentences — he was to be Cashiered.
That is, Johnston was dishonourably discharged from the army and sent on his way. The judges acknowledged that the circumstances existing in the colony in had threatened peace and good order, providing at least some justification for the mutiny and Johnston avoided the prison or death sentence many of his peers, and indeed even the Prince Regent, had thought inevitable.
A year after Johnston arrived back in the colony, in November , he regularised his family life and married Esther. Most historians argue the marriage occurred at the urging of Governor Macquarie but I wonder if, cashiered and free of the burdens of upholding regimental honour, Johnston simply and finally followed his heart.
The pair had been together for some twenty-seven years. In her husband George died too, at which point the beleaguered family went to war with itself. Robert Johnston, by Richard Noble, s. Some of her descendants became renowned, influential leaders in Australia. Grandson George Nichols, born to daughter Roseanna, became the first Australian-born solicitor.
Before he died in , this great-great-great grandson of Esther Abrahams and George Johnson established a foundation to help needy, homeless young people. Way back in the early days of our society we were researching some of the old buildings in the area. An appeal for information found two sources of information:….
Our Abbotsford House was built in by Sir Arthur Renwick , a doctor, politician and philanthropist. Sir Arthur was born in Glasgow, and named his mansion after Abbotsford House on the banks…. His first task on arrival, in early , was to clean up the remnants of a rebellion against the British rule which had been going on for some time in both Upper….
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