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Molly Brant

Canadian aboriginal leader

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ1396262
Source-derived summary

Molly Brant (c. 1736 – April 16, 1796), also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.

After Johnson's death in 1774, Brant and her children left Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York, and returned to her native village of Canajoharie, further west on the Mohawk River. A Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War, she migrated to British Canada, where she served as an intermediary between British officials and the Haudenosaunee. After the war, she settled in what is now Kingston, Ontario. In recognition of her service to the Crown, the British government gave Brant a pension and compensated her for her wartime losses, including a grant of land. When the British ceded their former colonial territory to the United States, most of the Haudenosaunee nations were forced out of New York. A Six Nations Reserve was established in what is now Ontario.

Since 1994, Brant has been honored as a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Molly Brant” as canadian aboriginal leader. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Molly, Brant and Canadian.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1736, 1796, 1774, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1736-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Molly, Brant and Canadian providing the first useful test.
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Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Molly Brant”, the useful work is to connect “canadian aboriginal leader” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1396262. VIAF identifies the subject as 9087174. The Library of Congress control number is n95008239. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1736, 1796, 1774 and 1994.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Molly Brant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.