Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/344

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIIL OCT. 12, 1907.

Boswell described old Michael Johnson as afflicted with " a general sensation of gloomy wretchedness," and no phrase could better describe the state of mind indicated by this unhappy letter. If Michael trans- mitted " a vile melancholy " to his elder son, his younger son must have inherited at least an equal share of it. We have no knowledge of what Nathaniel Johnson's troubles were, but it is difficult to explain this letter except on the supposition that, while assisting his mother in the business, he had been discovered in some act of dishonesty. He says that, had his wish to start in business at Stourbridge not been thwarted, " none of these Crimes had been committed which have given both you & me so much trouble " ; and declares that in whatever way of life he shall hereafter live, " it shall be an honest one." Finally, he thanks his mother for her " generous forgiveness." He appears not only to have considered himself badly treated by his brother, but also to have complained to his mother that she had not supplied him with a share of the working tools possibly tools for book-binding.

The letter bears no date, but as he sends his service to " my sister " it must have been written after Samuel's marriage on 9 July, 1735. Nathaniel himself died in March, 1736/7, aged only twenty-four. There is also nothing to tell us where it was written, but from the internal evidence we should conclude that he was running a small branch of the business at Burton-on- Trent. The " Mr. Gresley " mentioned was no doubt one of the Gresleys of Drakelow, near Burton ; he seems to have dealt before with Michael Johnson.

The reference to Stourbridge is of interest. His uncle Dr. Joseph Ford had lived there until his death in 1721 ; and his uncle Nathaniel Ford had also been a mercer in the town. At the date of this letter he probably had a cousin there ; while Gregory Hickman, stepson of Dr. Ford and brother of Nathaniel Ford's wife, was a prominent townsman. Gregory Hickman had assisted Samuel Johnson in 1731 ; and we may safely include him among the " Stourbridge friends " whom Nathaniel Johnson hoped some day to repay for the trouble and expense to which he had put them. Pro- bably old Mrs. Johnson dissuaded her son from his project of going " to Georgia in about a fortnight."

Namesakes of Michael Johnson. In my book I showed (p. 258) that there was, during the period 1663-81, living at Trent-

ham (where we know that the Doctor's father stayed in 1716) a shoemaker named Michael Johnson, who had a son Michael baptized in 1667. Shakespearean students are, I believe, familiar with a Michael Johnson living at Stratford in the seven- teenth century. T. J. M., of Stafford, pointed out some years ago in ' N. & Q.' (6 S. x. 465) that a Michael Johnson was Mayor of Chester in 1702. And from Britten's ' Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers,' 2nd ed., 1904, I learn that there was a Michael Johnson, of Barnard Castle,. Durham, who was admitted to the Clock- makers' Company in 1687, one watch by him being dated about 1720. It is also worth noting that one Michael Johnson was married to Ann Hestin, of Stretton-upon- Dunsmore, near Rugby, on 15 Sept., 1746, at Lichfield Cathedral ; and that a Samuel Johnson was married there, on 8 Sept., 1732,, to Margaret Lewis.

Mr. B. Tachella, of Derby, points out to- me that the Rev. Richard Johnson, who was- vicar of St. Werburgh's in that town from 1608 until his death in 1629 (see J. Charles Cox's ' Churches of Derbyshire,' vol. iv. p. 174), had three sons : Richard, baptized in 1611 ; Edward, baptized in 1613 ; and Michael, buried in 1629. It was at St. Werburgh's that Samuel Johnson elected to marry the widow Porter in 1735 ; and Mr. Tachella is inclined to believe that he- chose that church because of a kinsman's connexion with it over a century before. There is, however, no evidence of any family connexion between the Rev. Richard John- son and Michael Johnson, of Lichfield, and! the ignorance the Doctor expressed of his father's ancestry seems to negative the idea that he was influenced by any such tradition. Mr. Tachella tells me that Richard Johnson is mentioned by Cotton Mather in his ' Magnalia Christi Americana ' (1702) as the head master of Derby School, where he educated the famous John Cotton, pastor of Boston, up to 1597 ; and that he was an M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. With reference to a possible connexion of the Doctor's ancestry with Derby, my discovery must be borne in mind that Michael Johnson, as early as 1686, had been within an ace fo marrying the daughter of a Derby tradesman.

Michael Johnson's Ancestry. In ' Who's Who ' for 1907 Joseph William Johnson,. LL.D., F.S.A., of Beau Manor, Maidstone, is described as

"eldest son of Abraham Johnson, descendant of Dr. Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, founder of