Robert Johnson (archdeacon of Leicester)

(Redirected from Robert Johnson (Archdeacon of Leicester)) English cleric (1540–1625)

Robert Johnson (1540 –23 July 1625) was a Church of England cleric and the founder of both Oakham School and Uppingham School.

Inscription above the door of the Old School of Oakham School

He was the Puritan rector of North Luffenham, Rutland, for 51 years, from 1574 until his death. He was also Archdeacon of Leicester from 1591 to 1625. Using the income from these and other church posts he held concurrently, he founded free grammar schools in Oakham and Uppingham in 1584, as well as other charitable institutions. He enjoyed the patronage of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley.

Life

He was born in Stamford to Maurice and Jane Johnson, one of seven children; his father was Member of Parliament for Stamford. He was orphaned at age eleven. He was educated by his guardian uncle Robert Smith, first at Peterborough Grammar School, then at Cambridge University. He matriculated in 1557, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne, and in 1563, was appointed a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

He became a respected Protestant preacher and popular lecturer. He became rector of North Luffenham on 15 April 1574, a post he held for over a half a century. Sometime before 1571, he became chaplain for Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, at Bacon’s Elizabethan mansion of Gorhambury. While there, Johnson possibly tutored Nicholas Bacon’s son, the young Francis Bacon, and met Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth. Along with Lord Bacon, their patronage launched his career. He became simultaneously prebendary or canon of four Church of England prebends, those of Windsor, Peterborough, Norwich, and Rochester. This collection of endowed benefices made him very wealthy. He founded free grammar schools in Oakham and Uppingham in 1584, as well as other charitable institutions.

Robert Johnson died on 23 July 1625 in North Luffenham and his memorial is in the chancel of the parish church there.

Charitable works

His puritan beliefs meant he placed great importance on education, and he set up the grammar schools in the two towns of Rutland so that those who were too poor to pay for schooling could be taught Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

Among other endowments and foundations, Archdeacon Johnson founded Hospitals of Christ in Oakham and Uppingham, and re-founded and endowed the old hospital of Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Anne in Oakham. The schools and hospitals received their charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1587. He was also one of the eight founding fellows of Jesus College, Oxford.

A statue of Johnson can be seen on the Victoria Tower of Uppingham School.

Family

Johnson married three times. He had a son, Abraham, by his third wife, Maria (née Hird); and through this son he had thirteen grandchildren. His eldest grandson, Isaac Johnson used his large inheritance from Archdeacon Robert to found and fund the Massachusetts Bay Colony expedition of 1630. Three other grandsons John Johnson, Thomas Johnson, and Robert Johnson were among the founders of New Haven, Connecticut. Robert Johnson's great grandson Samuel Johnson founded King's College, now Columbia University.

References

"Archdeacons of Leicester" (PDF). p. 35. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
Bingham, Charles Richard, Our founder, some account of Archdeacon Johnson compiled for Uppingham school tercentenary (Uppingham, 1884), 3, 6-9.
^ "Robert Johnson (JHN557R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
Bingham, Our founder, 5.
Bingham, Charles Richard, Our founder, some account of Archdeacon Johnson compiled for Uppingham school tercentenary (Uppingham, 1884),6-9.
Bingham, Our founder, 9.
The registers of North Luffenham, in the county of Rutland. 1572-1812 (1896) p.142; he is described as a "painfull preacher"
Knighton, C. S. (January 2008). "Johnson, Robert (1540/41–1625)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14913. Retrieved 24 February 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
"The Founders". jesus.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
Irons, E.A., G. Philips, ed, “Isaac Johnson: A Memoir”, in The Rutland Magazine and County Historical Record, 1908, vol. 3 (United Kingdom: Oakham, 1908), 78-87.
Johnson, Frederick C., Rev. Jacob Johnson of Wallingford, (Conn.) and Wilkes-Barre, (Pa.), Wilkes-barre, Pa., 1904, p. 3-5

External links

History of Oakham School and Archdeacon Johnson

v t e Archdeacons of Leicester
High Medieval	Ranulph Godfrey Walter Robert de Chesney Hugh Barre Baldric de Segillo Hamo Roger de Rolleston Reimund of Lincoln Robert Grosseteste William de Dratton John of Basingstoke Solomon of Dover Roger de Saxenhurst Roger Martival
Late Medieval	Guillaume Cardinal de Farges Raynald Orsini Henry Chaddesden William Doune Philippe Cardinal de Cabassoles Giacomo Cardinal Orsini, Dean of Salisbury John Bottlesham John Elvet Richard Elvet John Legbourne Thomas Barnsley Richard Ewen William Witham Roger Rotherham John Morton Richard Lavender William Spark Henry Wilcocks Richard Maudeley Stephen Gardiner Edward Foxe Edmund Bonner William More
Early modern	Thomas Robertson Richard Barber Hugh Blythe Robert Johnson Richard Pilkington William Warr Henry Ferne Robert Hitch Clement Breton William Owtram Francis Meres Byrom Eaton John Rogers David Trimnel John Taylor James Bickham Andrew Burnaby Thomas Parkinson Thomas Bonney
Late modern	Henry Fearon Assheton Pownall John Mitchinson John Stocks Frederick MacNutt Cecil Matthews Irven Edwards Berkeley Cole David Silk Mike Edson Richard Atkinson Tim Stratford Richard Worsfold

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