Samuel Johnson: A Life - Hardcover

PART ONE

1

Lichfield has changed little in appearance in the past fifty years, though possibly it is more pleasant to explore on foot than formerly. James Clifford, in his biography of Johnson, described 'thundering trucks and streams of motor-cars' making the market-place a scene of noise and danger, but now that the city centre has been pedestrianised the walk from Bird Street, along Bore Street and down to Tamworth Street is an agreeable saunter.1 St Mary's Church, opposite the Birthplace, where young Samuel should have been christened (he was not expected to live and it was done hurriedly, in his mother's bedroom), is no longer a complete church; three-quarters of it has been transformed into the Lichfield Heritage Centre offering local history, tea and coffee. On the corner of Sadler and Breadmarket Streets is the Birthplace Museum, opposite the squat statue of the Doctor presented to the city by its citizens in August 1838. 'Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place', proclaims its plinth, though often lost in the market throng of greengrocers, jewellery and pastry stalls.

Lichfield is a city of commemoration. Along Dam Street, leading to Minster Pool and the cathedral, is Dame Oliver's School with, above it, a neat metal plaque to commemorate the spot where Lord Brooke, leader of the besieging parliamentary forces, was killed by a bullet fired by a local royalist sharpshooter high up in the cathedral. In Breadmarket Street, just past the Johnson Birthplace a plaquecommemorates Elias Ashmole, antiquarian and founder of the Ashmolean Museum, born there in 1617; outside the George Hotel in Bird Street another commemorates the residence of the playwright George Farquhar; further down the street yet another points out Garrick's house, and along Cathedral Close is where Joseph Addison lived when his father was the Dean. High up on the wall outside old St Mary's Church a small tablet commemorates three martyrs 'burnt at the stake in this market place' in the 1550s. Another signifies that George Fox, founder of the Quakers, stood 'without shoes' in the market in the winter of 1651, after his release from prison in Derby, 'and denounced the City of Lichfield'.2

Michael Johnson lived virtually his whole life in Lichfield, rising to become, in the year of Samuel's birth, its sheriff. It was a notable achievement for a man whose start had not been easy. In later years Samuel refused to be drawn on the subject of his forebears, informing Boswell he 'could scarcely tell' who his grandfather had been. Quite possibly he felt a sense of shame acknowledging William Johnson, born in Cubley, Derbyshire, about whose status there is a certain ambiguity; some documents describe him as a 'gentleman', others merely as a 'yeoman'. He first appears in Lichfield records in 1664, living in Tamworth Street with his wife Catherine and four children of whom Michael was the eldest.3 The family found life in Lichfield unrewarding and were forced to scuttle round from place to place with little money until eventually William died in 1671, whereupon Catherine threw herself on local charity and was granted 'a waistcoat' to keep her warm. Apart from the physical benefit this gift conferred, it also indicated she was a perfectly respectable person for the Smith Charity to support. It was another charitable donation, this time from the Conduit Lands Trust, which provided Michael with an apprenticeship to a stationer in London, something he never forgot.4 Once the eight-year term of his indenture was completed he returned to Lichfield and took up residence in Sadler Street in a substantial property with room both for his mother and a handsome bookshop. Soon he was not only selling books but publishing them; the title page of one boasts of 'shops at Litchfield and Uttoxiter, in Staffordshire; and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire', while he also maintained stallsat Abbots Bromley, Birmingham and Burton.5 A file of letters between him and a trusted client, Sir William Boothby of Ashbourne, reveals the baronet complaining of his 'hurry at Uttoxiter', grumbling that 'the paper booke was not goode paper will not beare ink well'. In December 1684 Sir William, who was very free with objections, lamented that 'Xinophon is misplaced in the binding (a great fault you must be careful to prevent)'; but he was considerably less forthcoming when it came to settling his account. In October 1684 he sent Michael £10 by the bearer 'wh: is all I can spare at present'; in February he wrote: 'I cannot yet help you to money', and in December complained again of Michael's charges; although he lacked time to examine the books, he thought 'many of them to deare'.6

In 1691 Michael published The Happy Sinner; or the Penitent Malefactor, a collection of last prayers by the army surgeon Richard Cromwell, executed on 3 July in Lichfield for murder. Cromwell left behind him only his 'seven sovereign remedies for the ills of the flesh', the ingredients of which might be had from apothecaries 'except the Queen of Hungarie's Water', which, Michael noted, he retailed himself. The following year, when his mother died, Michael was a churchwarden of St Mary's, had purchased a 'sitting' in the church, was employing apprentices of his own and, by 1697, was even wealthy enough to advance £80 to the Corporation of Lichfield.7

Sir William Boothby's criticisms still rankled in Michael's mind. At one point the baronet had complained that 'most of yr books ... are so ill Bund that I cannot open them to reade without much difficulty'. This was, he said, 'a great fault'. By the middle of the decade this was a fault Michael planned to correct by setting up as a manufacturer of parchment, vellum and leather and publishing his own books. So assiduous was he in his new enterprise that he obtained a summons against Jonathan Drayton, a tanner and potential rival. Michael travelled throughout the Midlands selling and repairing books, becoming a success and building up his trade, apparently reconciled to allowing the more personal side of life to take care of itself. But in June 1706, almost fifty and anxious for the future of his flourishing business, he negotiated a lengthy marriage contract between himself and Sarah Ford of King's Norton. Within the week they weremarried.8 He drew up a further contract assigning his several mortgages into one deed and spent a great deal both of time and money planning a grand new house for them to live in, on the corner of Sadler and Breadmarket Streets, on four floors with at least fifteen rooms, overlooking the market. So grand was his new edifice that it encroached on all the neighbouring properties, for which he had to pay an annual indemnity of 2s 6d for forty years.9 But it was worth it; Michael Johnson had finally arrived and it was in this house that, on 7 September 1709, his son Samuel was born.

Sarah, forty and bearing her first child, had 'a very difficult and dangerous labour', but it was a difficulty in which young Samuel, when he heard of it, took pride. 'I was born almost dead', he announced, 'and could not cry for some time.' Sarah Johnson was attended by the notable man-midwife George Hector, by whose efforts Johnson was safely delivered and celebrated in the words, 'Here is a brave boy.' The next day, Rogation Sunday, his father, who had risen that year to be sheriff of Lichfield, was due to ride the circuit of the city, a ceremony which was then performed with considerable solemnity. Asked by his wife 'whom he...