Anne Johnston was born in North Carolina, probably Craven County, in about 1740. 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. Anne, along with several of her siblings eventually relocated to Chowan County, where several of them played prominent roles in fostering the pro-independence movement and Patriot government in the colony. For her part, in 1774 Anne, along with her sister and sister-in-law, were some of the first signers of a non-importation agreement that later became known as the Edenton Tea Party Resolves. Anne may have died unmarried, as no further records about her eventual fate have been located.