JOHNSON. 



iJience he vras fent, wlien lie was aboxTt 15 years of age, to 

 MagJalen college, Cambridge. Here he took hij degi-ees 

 and entered into deacon'i orders, and {hortly after obtained 

 a curacy near Canterbury. In i686, lie was ordained prie.'t, 

 and collated by archbifliop Sancroft to the vicaratjes o f 

 Boclon and Hcarne-Hill. After the revolution he complied 

 with the new order of things, and became an able advocate 

 in its defence, which gained him the friendfhip and patron- 

 age of archbifhop Tennilon, from whom he received feveral 

 inftances of church preferment, and in 1707, was collated to 

 the vicarage of Cranbrook. Here he feems to have com- 

 pletely abandoned his friends and his principles, and to have 

 advanced from Rep to ftep till he even denied the king's fu- 

 premacy, and refufed to read the prayers enjoined on the 

 acceflion of George I. Notwithllandnig this dereliftion of 

 principle, he was twice chofen proftor in convocation for the 

 diocefe of Canterbury. He died in 1725, having been feveral 

 times under profecution, from the effects of which he was 

 re'eafed by fubmiflion to the higher powers : had his forti- 

 tude been equal to his zeal, he would have fuffered in defence 

 of the moll arbitrary and indefenlible opinions, that can well 

 be broached by a man of fenfe. .lohnfon was unquellionably 

 a man of found learning ; his morals were exemplary and his 

 piety unaffected. He was diligent in the difcharge of the 

 feveral duties belonging to the paftoral office, but his temper 

 was bad, and during the latter years of his life, he fiievvcd 

 fo much bigotry and intolerance againft thofe who thought 

 as he himfelf had formerly thought, as detrafted from the 

 ■value of his gocd qualities. His principal works are " The 

 Clergyman's Vade Mecum ;" " A CoIIedtion of Eccle- 

 fiaftical Laws, Canons, .Jcc. ;" " The unbloody Sacrifice 

 and Altar unveiled and fupported ;" and " A Paraphrafc on 

 the Pfalms in the Liturgy." After his death his furviving 

 daughter publilhed two volumes oi his pollhumous fermons 

 and difcourfes. Biog. Brit. 



JoHNSox, Samuel, an Englifh divii.-, was born in the 

 year 1649, in the county of Stafford, thv-'ugh others have 

 named Warwickfhire as his birth-place. He was educated 

 at St. Paul's- fchool, London, whence he was r.emoved to 

 Trinity college, Cambridge. After he had taken orders, 

 he was prefented to the rectory of Corringham, in thf hun- 

 dreds of EfTex, but the place not agreeing with his heiilth, 

 he removed to London, and took an aftive part in the po'i- 

 tical difcufTions of the times. He was introdiiced to lord 

 RulTcU, who immediately made him his domeftic chaplain. 

 He now became a formidable writer in the caufe of liberty, 

 and was called on during the reign of Charles IL to bear his 

 telfimony to the truth by fevere imprifonment. But his 

 fiifferings were brought to the acme by a paper which he 

 drew up in the year 1686, when the army was encamped 

 upon Hounflow Heath, entitled, " An humble and hearty 

 Addrefs to all Englifh Proteftants in the prefent Army." 

 For lliis he was brought to trial, and condemned to If and in 

 the pillory at three places, to pay a tine of<oo marks, and 

 to be publicly whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. Before 

 they executed this favage fcntence they intended to degrade 

 and depriTe him of his orders, but fortunately for the fuf- 

 ferer, the prelates Crew, Sprat, and White, too eager, pro- 

 bably, to perform the commands of the tyrant, forgot to 

 Hrip off his caffock. This informality was fatal to their 

 plans, and they found it impofTible to take away his living. 

 Notwllhftandlng the laceration of his body, his heart was 

 unbrokei], and he continued to employ his pen in the fame 

 caufe, till the revolution changed his iituation. Parliament 

 now declared that the proceedings againlt him were illegal, 

 and tlie houfe of lords addrcfl'ed king William to confer 

 upon him fome preferment. Johnfou was ambitious of a 



bifhopric, but he was ofFered a deanery ; this he did not ac- 

 cept, but received a pcnfion of 300/ /nr annum during his 

 own and bis fon's life, a prefent of looc/, and a place of 

 100/ per annum for his fon. A traft, which he afterward* 

 pubbdied, was the caufe of fo much perfonal violence as 

 nearly to have cod him his life : the piece was entitled " An 

 Argument proving tlial the Abrogation of King James by 

 the People of England from the Royal Throne, and the 

 Promotion of the Prince of Orange in his ftead, was accord- 

 ing to the Conllituiion of the Englifh Government, and pre- 

 scribed by it." It was, unquellionably, on account of thi» 

 p amphlet that feven ruffians broke into his houfe early in the 

 morning, affembled round his bed, gave lum a wound on 

 thf head with a fword, and otberwife ill-treated him. Tliey 

 thn^atened to take his life, but fhrinking from fo foul a 

 dced% they left him wounded, and did no injury to his houfe 

 or efvVcds. Notwithftanding his general attachment to the 

 new o'ovcrnment, he did not fpare its defefts; he complained 

 grievo.ufly of the duration of parliaments, which he main- 

 tained ouglit to be continued for one year each only. On 

 fome oi-cafuins his oppofition was carried fo far as to lead 

 his befl friends to fufpcft he was about to abandon his ori- 

 ginal prl»«:iplts. He died in 170^, and his works were col- 

 lefted and printed in one volume folio. Biog. Brit. 



JoHN.soi">', Samuel, a celebrated Englifh writer, was 

 born at L.itchlield, in the year 1709, in which city>hi» 

 father carriied on the bookfelhng bufinefs on a very fmall 

 fcale. He wwas educated partly at the frec-fchool of his- 

 native city, itnd partly at Stourbridge, in Worcefterfhire; 

 He was proba bly intended for trade, but having acquired a 

 reputation for learning, his father very willingly complied 

 with the propol'nl of Sir. Corbet, of ni.iintainirg Samuel at 

 Oxford, as con.panion to his fon. He accordingly was 

 entered a commoner of Pembroke college, in the year 1728,. 

 when lie was io tlie nineteenth year of his age. Johnfon was^ 

 carelefs of his cJiaraiPttr v\'uh relpeft to the difcipline and 

 the fludies of t\ic place, yet he obrained credit by fome of 

 his compofition>, of which the moft diltinguiljied was a 

 tranllation into Latin of Pope's MelTiah, written with great 

 fpirit and vigour. He remained at Oxford but three years, 

 during a part of wbkh he had to ftruggle with the griping 

 hand of penury. Scon after his return home, his father 

 died in very narrow Cij"curaftances, and about this time it 

 acpears, from his own account, that he was lirll led to 

 think in earned of religion, by the perufal of Law's " Strious 

 Call to the Unconverted '' He engaged himfelf as uflier 

 to the grammar fchool of Market Bofworth, Lel'.ederfiiire, 

 but the treatment which he met with at this place ill ac- 

 corded with his feelings, and he quitted the fchool, and 

 pafled fome time with a fjiend at Birmingham. Here he 

 wrote fome literary cfTays, aud tranflated and abridged from 

 the French the account of the voyage to AbyfUiiia, by 

 father Lobo. This was pubiJfhed without the tranflator's 

 name, at London, in 17^5. Returning to Litchfield, he 

 iffued propofals for publilhing by fubfcription, the Latin 

 poem of Politian, but they did not meet with encourage- 

 ment, and the defign was abandoned. He now made a bold 

 effort to improve fiis fituation, iriarried the widow of Mr. 

 Porter, a mercer of Birmingham, and opened a fchool. He 

 had received 800/. with his lady, and depending on his own 

 learning and powers, he took a large houfe, and advertifed 

 for fcholars to be boarded and indruifed in the Greek and 

 Latin languages. His plan did not fticceed ; not more than 

 three fcholars offered, among thefe wr.3 the ci-lebrated 

 David Garrick. After a year's trial he abandoned hi» 

 fchool, and refolved to become a literary adventurer in the 

 metropolis. He accordingly ftt out, taking his fcholar 

 8 Garnck, 



