Thomas Johnson (scholar)

Last updated October 01, 2019

Thomas Johnson (died 1737) was an English cleric and academic, a moralist writer.

Life

Johnson was a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge (B.A. 1724, M.A. 1728), who was senior university taxor in 1732; and later chaplain at Whitehall Palace. He died in July 1737.^[1]

Magdalene College, Cambridge constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene. Magdalene counted some of the greatest men in the realm among its benefactors, including Britain's premier noble the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Chief Justice Christopher Wray. Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII, was responsible for the refoundation of the college and also established its motto—garde ta foy. Audley's successors in the Mastership and as benefactors of the College were, however, prone to dire ends; several benefactors were arraigned at various stages on charges of high treason and executed.

Works

He was one of the four editors of Robert Estienne's Latin Thesaurus, 4 vols. 1734–5; the others were Edmund Law, John Taylor,^[2] and Sandys Hutchinson.^[3] In 1735 he published an edition of Samuel Pufendorf's De Officio Hominis et Civis, London; other editions, 1737, 1748, 1758. His other writings are:

Robert Estienne 16th-century printer and classical scholar in Paris

Robert I Estienne, known as Robertus Stephanus in Latin and sometimes referred to as Robert Stephens or Roberti Stephani was a 16th-century printer and classical scholar in Paris was the proprietor of the Estienne print shop after the death of his father Henri Estienne, the founder of the Estienne printing firm. Estienne published and republished many classical texts as well as Greek and Latin translations of the Bible. Known as "Printer to the King" in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, Estienne's most priominent work was the Thesaurus linguae latinae which is considered to be the foundation of modern Latin lexicography. Addtionally, he was the first to print the New Testament divided into standard numbered verses.

Edmund Law was a priest in the Church of England. He served as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, as Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge from 1764 to 1769, and as bishop of Carlisle from 1768 to 1787.

John Taylor, English classical scholar, was born at Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

An Essay on Moral Obligation: with a view towards settling the Controversy concerning Moral and Positive Duties^[4] (anon.), Cambridge, 1731, written in answer to pamphlets by Thomas Chubb and another (anonymous author, The True Foundation of Natural and Reveal'd Religion) that was in fact by Arthur Ashley Sykes.
The Insufficiency of the Law of Nature, Cambridge, 1731.
A Letter to Mr. Chandler, in Vindication of a Passage in the Lord Bishop of London's second Pastoral Letter, Cambridge, 1734. To Samuel Chandler.
Quæstiones Philosophicæ in justi systematis ordinem dispositæ … Ad calcem subjicitur appendix de legibus disputandi, Cambridge, 1734 (other editions, 1735, 1741).

Thomas Chubb was an English lay Deist writer, born near Salisbury. He saw Christ as a divine teacher, but held reason to be sovereign over religion. He questioned the morality of religions, while defending Christianity on rational grounds. Despite little schooling, Chubb was well up on the religious controversies of the day. His The True Gospel of Jesus Christ, Asserted argues for distinguishing the teaching of Jesus from that of the Evangelists. Chubb's views on free will and determinism, expressed in A Collection of Tracts on Various Subjects (1730), were extensively criticised by Jonathan Edwards in Freedom of the Will (1754).

Arthur Ashley Sykes (1684–1756) was an Anglican religious writer, known as an inveterate controversialist. Sykes was a latitudinarian of the school of Benjamin Hoadly, and a friend and student of Isaac Newton.

Samuel Chandler was a British Nonconformist minister, dissenter and polemicist pamphleteer. He energetically engaged with the religious disputes and published many sermons, pamphlets and letters. He translated and expanded the Historia Inquisitionis, of Philipp van Limborch, from Latin into English.

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References

"Johnson, Thomas (fl.1718)" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives.

Notes

↑ "Johnson, Thomas (JHN721T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
↑ "Taylor, John (1704-1766)" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
↑ "Hutchinson, Sandys (HTCN724S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
↑ Thomas Johnson (1731). An essay on moral obligation:: with a view towards settling the controversy, concerning moral and positive duties in answer to two late pamphlets, the one entitled, The true foundation of natural and revealed religion asserted being a reply to the supplement to the treatise on the Christian sacraments, the other—Some reflections upon the comparative excellency and usefulness of moral and positive duties by Mr. Chubb. Printed by J.S. for W. Thurlbourn bookseller in Cambridge and sold by J. and J. Knapton ... and J. Stephens. Retrieved 26 March 2012.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Johnson, Thomas (fl.1718)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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[1] "Johnson, Thomas (JHN721T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[2] "Taylor, John (1704-1766)" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

[3] "Hutchinson, Sandys (HTCN724S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[4] Thomas Johnson (1731). An essay on moral obligation:: with a view towards settling the controversy, concerning moral and positive duties in answer to two late pamphlets, the one entitled, The true foundation of natural and revealed religion asserted being a reply to the supplement to the treatise on the Christian sacraments, the other—Some reflections upon the comparative excellency and usefulness of moral and positive duties by Mr. Chubb. Printed by J.S. for W. Thurlbourn bookseller in Cambridge and sold by J. and J. Knapton ... and J. Stephens. Retrieved 26 March 2012.