Author: Johnson, John
Biography:
JOHNSON, John (fl 1783)
Search Oxford Libraries Online (SOLO) and HL attribute to John Johnston (1706-91) the 1783 volume Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Collected from Various Authors (1783). The attribution is unwarranted. The book is dedicated from Reading, but Johnson, founder of the Johnsonian Baptists, confined his work to Ireland and to the Manchester area. As far as is known, he never visited Reading. Besides, the volume includes Methodist hymns, making the attribution doubly unlikely. A better candidate is “John Johnson” (life dates unknown), a first-generation Wesleyan lay preacher who in 1763 corresponded with Charles Wesley. In his preface to A Collection of Hymns (1820), John Wesley states that he compiled Hymns and Spiritual Songs, “extracted several years ago, from a variety of Hymn Books,” but the reference appears to be to a book he published in 1753. (HL; SOLO 12 Dec. 2023) JC