Trottier-Johnson was born in Berwickshire, Scotland, on
June 22, 1841. He emigrated to
Vancouver Island in
1865, spending most of his life in
Port Alberni,
Victoria, and the
Cowichan Region. In
1868, Trotter-Johnston married Letitia Elizabeth Laggatt, and he was later, in
1870, appointed as
a consul for British Columbia, to reside at Victoria for the North German Confederation.
In
1872, he established the BC Benevolent Society with Robert Edwin Jackson, a lawyer,
to aid the community's poor.