Jean Johnston was born in Scotland in about 1729. She arrived in North Carolina in about 1735 when her father became the Surveyor General for North Carolina. Her father amassed considerable tracts of land in Onslow, Craven, and Bladen counties. Orphaned when her father died in 1756, Anne was sent to live with Phoebe Starkey Warburton, the sister of her father's friend, until she reached adulthood. In April 1762 Jean Johnston married George Blair, a prosperous merchant in Edenton. The Blairs had at least five children together before George Blair died unexpectedly in April 1772 at the age of thirty-four. Left to raise her children on her own, Jean Blair relied in part on her vast familial network, which included both a future North Carolina Governor and a future Supreme Court justice. She also managed thousands of acres of plantations where she enslaved many people. In 1774 Jean Blair, as well as several of her relatives, signed a nonimportation agreement that later became known as the Edenton Tea Party Resolves. Aside from her support for the Patriot cause during the American Revolution, Jean Johnston Blair is also noted for her appreciation of literature and for funding a book publication, becoming one of the first women to do so in North Carolina. She died in Edenton on 12 March 1789.