family of Trenton, New Jersey, are descended from two brothers, John
and Robert Chambers, who came over in the ship _Henry and Francis_ in
1685.

In the eighteenth century many natives of Dumfriesshire emigrated to
the American colonies, and of these perhaps the most prominent were
those descended from John Johnston of Stapleton, Dumfriesshire, an
officer in a Scottish regiment in the French service. His second son,
Gabriel, became Governor of North Carolina. In the house of the
Governor's brother, Gilbert, it is stated that General Marion signed
the commission for the celebrated band known as "Marion's Men." Among
the more prominent descendants of Gilbert Johnston are: (1) James, who
became a Colonel on the staff of General Rutherford during the
Revolution and served in several engagements; (2) William, M.D., who
married a daughter of General Peter Forney, and died in 1855. This
William had five sons: (1) James, a Captain in the Confederate Army;
(2) Robert, a Brigadier-General; (3) William, a Colonel; (4) Joseph
Forney, born in 1843, Captain in the Confederate Army, Governor of
Alabama from 1896 to 1900, and United States Senator for Alabama in
1907; (5) Bartlett, an officer in the Confederate Navy. Samuel
Johnston, a nephew of Gilbert's, was the Naval Officer of North
Carolina in 1775, Treasurer during the Revolution, and Governor of
North Carolina from 1787 to 1789, President of the Convention that
finally adopted the State Constitution, and first Senator elected by
his state in the United States Congress in 1789. His son, James, was
the largest planter in the United States on his death in 1865.
Gilbert's brother Robert, was an attorney and civil engineer. His son,
Peter, served as Lieutenant in the legion which Colonel Henry Lee
recruited in Virginia, and after the war became Judge of the
South-Western Circuit in Virginia, and Speaker of the Virginia House