19th. Being Sunday, and the People living on my Land, apparently very religious, it was thought best to postpone going among them till tomorrow1—but rode to a Doctr. Johnsons who had the Keeping of Colo. Crawfords (Surveying) records—but not finding him at home was disappointed in the business which carried me there.2
1. These settlers were Seceders, a Presbyterian sect that had broken with the Church of Scotland in 1733 in a dispute over lay control, especially in the calling of ministers. The Scottish Seceders had formed the Associate Synod in 1745. Rev. Matthew Henderson organized a Seceder congregation in the Chartiers Creek area in 1775 and currently had charge of it and another Seceder group near present-day Buffalo, Pa. (, 120, 408; , 319, 338).
2. Four Johnstons held property in the neighborhood of Col. John Canon’s home in 1781: John Johnston, 300 acres; William Johnston, 134 acres; William Johnston, Sr., 360 acres; and Mathew Johnston, 300 acres (, 715).