Author: JOHNSTON, C. L.
Biography:
JOHNSTON, Charles Lewis, alternatively Lewis Charles (fl 1774-1837)
Charles Lewis Johnston of Newry and of Drogheda, Ireland, was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society. There is slight evidence that he might have married and had at least one child: a Mrs Johnston and a Miss Johnston of Newry subscribed to the Newry poet Richard Benson’s (q.v.) Morni, published at Newry in 1815. His William III, Or Protestant Ascendancy: A Poem, in Two Cantos (Dublin, 1827) reflects his enthusiasms, evangelical Protestantism and anti-Catholicism. He dedicated William III to an anti-Catholic pamphleteer, the Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees (1776-1852). As attested by a writer in the Newry Telegraph, when his poem The Millenium was published, 1832, he was resident in Drogheda. That writer praised the poet’s technical skill, not the poem, for “completing the mechanical part, although not reared to the printing business, … even the press was manufactured by himself!” His The History of Drogheda (Drogheda, 1826) claims a book that has not been traced, The Ruins of Erin, a Poem. He also wrote Original Letters of Cromwell, Written During the Siege of Drogheda, with Notes (Dublin, 1834). NLI identifies the author of Ceallachan, L. C. Johnston, as Lewis C. Johnston, and C. L. Johnston, the author of William III, as Charles L. Johnston. If Johnston went by the name Lewis, that might explain his occasionally reversing his initials. On present evidence it is likely although not certain that the names refer to the same individual. The BL copy of The Millenium contains what appear to be the author’s manuscript notes. C. L. Johnston inserted a notice in the Drogheda Argus newspaper on 29 July 1837 stating that he was not responsible for certain articles in the Drogheda Conservative. (NLI 23 Nov. 2023; Newry Telegraph, 10 Aug. 1832; Selections from the Records of the Marischal College and University 1592-1860 [1868], 2: 147; O’Donoghue, 217) JC
Other Names:
- C. L. Johnston
- L. C. Johnston