Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnson, Maurice
JOHNSON, MAURICE (1688–1755), antiquary, eldest son of Maurice Johnson, barrister-at-law, of the Inner Temple, by Jane, daughter and coheiress of Francis Johnson, of Ayscoughfee Hall in Spalding, Lincolnshire, was born at Ayscoughfee on 19 June 1688, and baptised at Spalding on 26 June. He was admitted a member of the Society of the Inner Temple on 26 May 1705, and was called to the bar on 26 June 1710, but lived chiefly at Spalding, engaged in antiquarian pursuits. In 1709–10 Johnson founded at Spalding the literary society called ‘The Gentlemen's Society,’ of which he acted as secretary for thirty-five years, and was afterwards president (see Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vi. 1–162). He designed a book-plate for the society, which was engraved by George Vertue, and dated 1710.
The revival of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1717 was largely due to Johnson's efforts (cf. Christian Kortholt, De Societate Antiquaria Londinensi, Leipzig, 1730). He introduced Dr. William Stukeley, who became the first secretary, and he himself in 1717 was appointed honorary librarian. His communications were frequent and numerous from 1721 to 1755, and two short papers by him are printed in the first volume of ‘Archæologia.’ In 1754 Dr. Ducarel addressed Johnson as ‘our senior member,’ and Stukeley, ‘on account of early acquaintance and sameness of disposition,’ inscribed to him the first ‘iter’ in his ‘Itinerarium Curiosum,’ which he styles ‘Iter Domesticum.’ Johnson was a justice of the peace, and chairman of the South Holland quarter sessions, deputy recorder of Stamford in 1721, steward of the manor of Spalding for the Duke of Buccleuch, of those of Kirton and Croyland for the Earl of Exeter, and of that of Hitchin for his kinsman, James Bogdani, esq.
About 1721 Johnson joined with John Cecil, earl of Exeter, and others, in founding at Stamford ‘The Stamford Society’ on the rules of that of Spalding. This society declined, and from its ashes Stukeley founded in 1745 ‘The Brazen-nose Society of Stamford.’ In 1734 Johnson, who was acting at the time as counsel to the dean and chapter of Peterborough, helped to found at Peterborough another literary society, which was short-lived, and in 1750 he sought to inaugurate a society on the same lines at Boston.
According to Stukeley's ‘Diary,’ Johnson new-paved with stone the remarkable triangular bridge at Croyland, erected between 1360 and 1390, and thus preserved it. Johnson was a botanist, had a fine collection of plants, and through the introduction of Dr. Green, the husband of his eldest daughter, was very intimate with Boerhaave and Linnæus, both of whom visited Dr. Green at Spalding. He was also an excellent numismatist, had a large cabinet of medals, and prepared a numismatic history of the kings of Britain from the time of Julius Cæsar to the end of the reign of Queen Anne, as well as ‘A Dissertation on the Mint at Lincoln,’ read before the Spalding Society in 1740. The dissertation, with others of his essays, is published in Nichols's ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,’ 1790. He collected also enamels, seals, vases, crystals, armour, stained glass, and prints, and at his wish Dr. Green made an inventory of the armour at Brussels, which was printed by Nichols.
In 1727, at the instance of Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire, Johnson drew up a dissertation in Latin, entitled ‘Jurisprudentia Jobi,’ with critical notes and drawings of the Diphros. He left immense manuscript collections, which he indexed in 1750. They relate chiefly to the law and history of Spalding, Boston, Stamford, Croyland, Peterborough, and Hitchin. The larger part of these are still in the possession of the Johnson family at Blundeston in Suffolk, at Ayscoughfee, and in the library of the Spalding Society. A few of his manuscript letters are in Cole's MSS. in the British Museum, and many of his letters have been printed in Stukeley's ‘Diary,’ Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes of Eighteenth Century,’ and in ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.’
Johnson died on 6 Feb. 1755, and was buried on 11 Feb. in the Johnson transept of Spalding Church, at the side of his wife Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of William Ambler of Spalding, whom he married on 5 Jan. 1709–10, and who died in 1754, after having given birth to twenty-six children. There is no monument to him. Several portraits in oils exist at Ayscoughfee, Blundeston, and Sleaford, and at least two miniatures, one of which has been engraved by Holl. Stukeley had a pencil sketch of his head in profile by G. Vandergucht, dated 1723.
[Provincial Literary Repository, Spalding, 1801, i. 8, 46, 84; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Genealogist, ed. G. W. Marshall, i. 110; Reliquiæ Galeanæ; Acts and Observations of the Spalding Gentlemen's Soc. in Lincoln, London, 1745; Stukeley's Diaries and Letters (vide indices); Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vi. and vii. 201–2; Proc. Arch. Inst. (at Lincoln), pp. 82–9.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.169
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 23 | i | 14 f.e. | Johnson, Maurice: for Vertue read Virtue |