ANNALS
1.
1709-10.
Sept. 7[1], 1709, I was born at Lichfield. My mother had a very difficult and dangerous labour, and was assisted by George Hector, a man-midwife of great reputation[2]. I was born almost dead, and could not cry for some time. When he had me in his arms, he said, 'Here is a brave boy[3].'
In a few weeks an inflammation was discovered on my buttock, which was at first, I think, taken for a burn; but soon appeared to be a natural disorder. It swelled, broke, and healed.
My Father[4], being that year Sheriff of Lichfield, and to ride the
- ↑ 18 of the present style. Note by Dr. Johnson.
Dr. Franklin wrote to his wife on Jan. 6, 1773 – 'I feel some regard for this 6th of January as my old nominal birthday, though the change of style has carried the real day forward to the 17th.' Franklin's Works, ed. 1889, v. 86.
1709 was a year of great dearth. According to the table of the prices of wheat in the Wealth of Nations, ed. 1811, i. 357, there were only two dearer years – 1648, 1649 – between 1595 and 1764.
- ↑ Probably the father of Johnson's old schoolfellow Edmund Hector, the Birmingham surgeon. Life, ii. 456.
Accoucheur is not in Johnson's Dictionary. The earliest instance in the New Eng. Dict. is from Tristram Shandy in 1759: – 'Nothing will serve you but to carry off the man-midwife. – Accoucheur, if you please, quoth Dr. Slop.'
- ↑ This was written in January, 1765. Note by Wright.
- ↑ I have copied the following entry from a document in the possession of my cousin, Mr. Horatio Symonds, of Beaumont Street, Oxford: –
'"Michaell the Sonne of William Johnson and Catherine his Wife was baptized Aprill the 20."
'Copied from the Register belonging to the parish of Cubley in Derbyshire.
'This part of the Register is so much injured by Time that it is uncertain whether the Date is Aprill the 20 or the 2. I think it is the 20.'
This extract is endorsed in Johnson's handwriting: – 'Father's register.'
Michael Johnson was born in 1656. Life, iv. 393, n. 2.
The Rev. Cave Humfrey, Rector of Cubley, informs me that the Registers begin in 1566, but that several
