Rambler, No. 60. BOSWELL.
[109] Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, Book I. BOSWELL.
[110] Johnson’s godfather, Dr. Samuel Swinfen, according to the author of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson, 1785, p. 10, was at the time of his birth lodging with Michael Johnson. Johnson had uncles on the mother’s side, named Samuel and Nathanael (see Notes and Queries, 5th S. v. 13), after whom he and his brother may have been named. It seems more likely that it was his godfather who gave him his name.
[111] So early as 1709 The Tatler complains of this ‘indiscriminate assumption.’ ‘I’ll undertake that if you read the superscriptions to all the offices in the kingdom, you will not find three letters directed to any but Esquires…. In a word it is now Populus Armigerorum, a people of Esquires, And I don’t know but by the late act of naturalisation, foreigners will assume that title as part of the immunity of being Englishmen.’ The Tatler, No. 19.
[112] ‘I can hardly tell who was my grandfather,’ said Johnson. See post, May 9, 1773.
[113] Michael Johnson was born in 1656. He must have been engaged in the book-trade as early as 1681; for in the Life of Dryden his son says, ‘The sale of Absalom and Achitophel was so large, that my father, an old bookseller, told me, he had not known it equalled but by Sacheverell’s Trial.’ Johnson’s Works, vii. 276. In the Life of Sprat he is described by his son as ‘an old man who had been no careless observer of the passages of those times.’ Ib. 392.
[114] Her epitaph says that she was born at Kingsnorton. Kingsnorton is in Worcestershire, and not, as the epitaph says, ‘in agro Varvicensi.’ When Johnson a few days before his death burnt his papers, some fragments of his Annals escaped the flames. One of these was never seen by Boswell; it was published in 1805 under the title of An Account of the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, from his Birth to his Eleventh Year, written by himself. In this he says (p. 14), ‘My mother had no value for my father’s relations; those indeed whom we knew of were much lower than hers.’ Writing to Mrs. Thrale on his way to Scotland he said: ‘We changed our horses at Darlington, where Mr. Cornelius Harrison, a cousin-german of mine, was perpetual curate. He was the only one of my relations who ever rose in fortune above penury, or in character above neglect.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 105. His uncle Harrison he described as ‘a very mean and vulgar man, drunk every night, but drunk with little drink, very peevish, very proud, very ostentatious, but luckily not rich.’ Annals, p. 28. In Notes and Queries, 6th S. x. 465, is given the following extract of the marriage of Johnson’s parents from the Register of Packwood in Warwickshire:—
‘1706. Mickell Johnsones of lichfield and Sara ford maried June the 9th.’
[115] Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 3) records that Johnson told her that ‘his father was wrong-headed, positive, and afflicted with melancholy.’
[116] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 213 [Sept. 16]. BOSWELL.
[117] Stockdale in his Memoirs, ii. 102, records an anecdote told him by Johnson of ‘the generosity of one of the customers of his father. “This man was purchasing a book, and pressed my father to let him have it at a far less price than it was worth. When his other topics of persuasion failed, he had recourse to one argument which, he thought, would infallibly prevail:—You know, Mr. Johnson, that I buy an almanac of you every year.”’
[118] Extract of a letter, dated ‘Trentham, St. Peter’s day, 1716,’ written by the Rev. George Plaxton, Chaplain at that time to Lord Gower, which may serve to show the high estimation in which the Father of our great Moralist was held: ‘Johnson, the Litchfield Librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just height; all the Clergy here are his Pupils, and suck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance sine directione Michaelis.’ Gentleman’s Magazine, October, 1791. BOSWELL.
[119] In Notes and Queries, 3rd S. v. 33, is given the following title-page of one of his books: ‘[Greek: Pharmako-Basauos]: or the Touchstone of Medicines, etc. By Sir John Floyer of the City of Litchfield, Kt., M.D., of Queen’s College, Oxford. London: Printed for Michael Johnson, Bookseller, and are to be sold at his shops at Litchfield and Uttoxiter, in Staffordshire; and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, 1687.’
[120] Johnson writing of his birth says: ‘My father being that year sheriff of Lichfield, and to ride the circuit of the county [Mr. Croker suggests city, not being aware that ‘the City of Lichfield was a county in itself.’ See Harwood’s Lichfield, p. 1. In like manner, in the Militia Bill of 1756 (post 1756) we find entered, ‘Devonshire with Exeter City and County,’ ‘Lincolnshire with Lincoln City and County’] next day, which was a ceremony then performed with great pomp, he was asked by my mother whom he would invite to the Riding; and answered, “all the town now.” He feasted the citizens with uncommon magnificence, and was the last but one that maintained the splendour of the Riding.’ Annals, p. 10. He served the office of churchwarden in 1688; of sheriff in 1709; of junior bailiff in 1718; and senior bailiff in 1725.’ Harwood’s Lichfield, p. 449.
[121] ‘My father and mother had not much happiness from each other. They seldom conversed; for my father could not bear to talk of his affairs, and my mother being unacquainted with books cared not to talk of anything else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topic with more success, if she could have diversified her conversation. Of business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was composed only of complaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of his life contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enable him to pay them and maintain his family; he got something, but not enough.’ Annals, p. 14. Mr. Croker noticing the violence of Johnson’s language against the Excise, with great acuteness suspected ‘some cause of personal animosity;’ this mention of the trade in parchment (an exciseable article) afforded a clue, which has led to the confirmation of that suspicion. In the records of the Excise Board is to be found the following letter, addressed to the supervisor of excise at Lichfield: ‘July 27, 1725. The Commissioners received yours of the 22nd instant, and since the justices would not give judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the tanner, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against him, the Board direct that the next time he offends, you do not lay an information against him, but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may be prosecuted in the Exchequer.’
[122] See post, March 27, 1775.
[123] ‘I remember, that being in bed with my mother one morning, I was told by her of the two places to which the inhabitants of this world were received after death: one a fine place filled with happiness, called Heaven; the other, a sad place, called Hell. That this account much affected my imagination I do not remember.’ Annals, p. 19.
[124] Johnson’s Works, vi. 406.
[125] Mr. Croker disbelieves the story altogether. ‘Sacheverel,’ he says, ‘by his sentence pronounced in Feb. 1710, was interdicted for three years from preaching; so that he could not have preached at Lichfield while Johnson was under three years of age. Sacheverel, indeed, made a triumphal progress through the midland counties in 1710; and it appears by the books of the corporation of Lichfield that he was received in that town, and complimented by the attendance of the corporation, “and a present of three dozen of wine,” on June 16, 1710; but then “the infant Hercules of Toryism” was just nine months old.’ It is quite possible that the story is in the main correct. Sacheverel was received in Lichfield in 1710 on his way down to Shropshire to take possession of a living. At the end of the suspension in March 1713 he preached a sermon in London, for which, as he told Swift, ‘a bookseller gave him £100, intending to print 30,000’ (Swift’s Journal to Stella, April 2, 1713). It is likely enough that