JOHNSON, James

1705 - 1774  (69 years)

• Name	JOHNSON, James  [1]
  Born	1705	Melford, Suffolk, England   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	28 Nov 1774	Bath, Somerset, England   [1]
  Person ID	I19018	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	JOHNSON, James,   b. 1674, Bowden Park, Wiltshire, England ,   d. 10 Mar 1740, Long Melford, Suffolk, England  (Age 66 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	CUTHBERT, Ann,   b. 1675,   d. 11 May 1743  (Age 68 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F4629	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Children	1. JOHNSON, Elizabeth,   b. 1726  [natural]
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023
  Family ID	F7183	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		James Johnso 1705-1774 portrait
  		James Johnson (-1774)
  		James Johnso 1705-1774 Actual
  		Bishop James Johnson, bust at Worcester Cathedral
  		James Johnso 1705-1774
  		Bp_James_Johnson,_Hartlebury

  
  

• Notes

  JOHNSON, JAMES (1705–1774), bishop of Worcester, was born in 1705 at Melford in Suffolk, of which parish his father, James Johnson, was rector. In 1719 he was elected a king's scholar of Westminster School, becoming in 1724 a student at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1728, M.A. 1731, B.D. and D.D. 1 June 1742. From 1733 to 1748 he was second master of Westminster School, and from 1743 to 1759 rector of Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire. In 1748 Johnson (through his old schoolfellow, the Duke of Newcastle) became a king's chaplain in ordinary, and accompanied George II to Hanover. During the same year he was nominated a canon residentiary of St. Paul's. He accompanied the king a second time to Hanover in 1752, and on his return to England it was in contemplation to appoint him preceptor to the Prince of Wales, but the opposition of the whigs was too violent to permit the arrangement to be carried out. He was elevated to the see of Gloucester on 18 Oct. 1752. Shortly afterwards Christopher Fawcett, the recorder of Newcastle, while dining with Lord Ravensworth at Durham, asserted that Johnson had on one occasion, in company with Stone and Murray, two old schoolfellows, drunk the health of the Pretender. This charge reached the ears of Henry Pelham, who summoned Fawcett to London and examined him on the subject in a cabinet council (15, 16, 17 Feb. 1754). Fawcett prevaricated, and the charge was shown to be false. The Duke of Bedford, and subsequently Lord Ravensworth, called the attention of the House of Lords to the matter; Johnson defended himself satisfactorily (22 Feb.), although, according to Horace Walpole, ‘with insolence.’ An eloquent speech was delivered in Johnson's behalf by the Bishop of St. Asaph (Dr. Hay-Drummond), himself an ‘old Westminster,’ and the debate terminated without a division. In 1759 Johnson was translated to Worcester, and during his tenure of that see made considerable improvements and embellishments in Hartlebury Castle, the ancient country palace of the diocese, in addition to laying out the sum of 5,000l. on the episcopal residence in Worcester. To the ecclesiastical patronage of the see he added the rectory of Richard's Castle in the diocese of Hereford. He died at Bath on 28 Nov. 1774, in consequence of a fall from his horse, and was interred among his ancestors at Laycock in Wiltshire. A monument, designed by Nollekens, was shortly afterwards erected to his memory in Worcester Cathedral. Johnson's amiability was unvarying. His private wealth was large. He was very hospitable, and especially generous to his relatives. He published four sermons separately. [Alumni Westmonast. p. 288; Oxford Graduates; Bubb Doddington's Diary, 22 March 1753; Green's Hist. of Worcester, ed. 1796, i. 216; Bishop Newton's Autob., in Works, ed. 1782, i. 101–2; Walpole's Memoirs of George II, i. 304; G. Butt's Funeral Sermon at Bath; Gent. Mag. 1774, p. 598; Brit. Mus. Cat.] Worcester Cathedral, Worcestershire: monument to Bishop James Johnson, commissioned by Sarah Johnson, 1778 (6) 1778 James Johnson (1705-74) was the son of James Johnson, rector of Long Melford, Suffolk. He worked as deputy master at Westminster School in 1733-48, and held clerical livings at Turweston, Buckinghamshire in 1741-44, Mixbury, Oxfordshire in 1744-59, and Watford, Hertfordshire in 1744-59. He also served as chaplain-in-ordinary to King George II in 1744, and held a residency at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1748-52. Following this he was elevated to Bishop of Gloucester in 1752, and then became Bishop of Worcester in 1759. Johnson remained at Worcester until his death on 26 November 1774, when he fell from his horse in Bath. He was buried in Lacock, Wiltshire, and four years later his sister, Sarah Johnson, commissioned designs from Robert Adam for a funerary monument to be carved by Joseph Nollekens RA (1737-1823) for Worcester Cathedral. Adam made variant designs for two separate schemes, one being a modest wall-mounted monument with a large central inscription panel, and the other being a more extravagant free-standing monument, with a sarcophagus and a bust of Johnson, either set against a pediment, or a pyramid in relief. It was the latter – a free-standing monument with a fluted sarcophagus, supported by fluted volutes, and ornamented with a mitre, crozier and inverted torch (the symbol of death), surmounted by a bust, and set against a pyramid in relief – which was executed and signed by Nollekens. The monument survives in situ in the west end of Worcester Cathedral. Literature: A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, index pp. 31, 77; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume I, pp. 363, 367, Volume 2, p. 267; ‘Johnson, James (bap. 1705, d. 1774)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography online Frances Sands, 2014

  
  

• Sources

  [S309] Public Member Trees, Ancestry.com, (Name: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.;;), Database online. Record for James JOHNSON http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=0&pid=5270