Samuel Johnson

Born: Guilford; October 14, 1696
Died: Stratford; January 6, 1772

Entry by Bruce P. Stark

Samuel Johnson was an Anglican priest, a missionary of the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel, and from 1754 to 1763 was president of King's College, now Columbia University. Johnson was graduated from the Collegiate School in 1714, and two years later after teaching school in his native town became a tutor at the Collegiate School. He served as a tutor for three years, studied theology, and in March 1719/20 was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, now Orange. He read widely in theology and church history, particularly studying Anglican writings, and in September 1722, along with six others including Timothy Cutter (1684-1753), rector of Yale College, confessed that he doubted "the validity of Presbyterian ordination in opposition to Episcopal ordination." The shock of this apostacy reverberated throughout Connecticut and New England. Johnson abandoned his parish and in November 1722 sailed to England. He was subsequently ordained a priest in the Anglican Church and was appointed missionary to Stratford by the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

Johnson devoted the rest of his life to the Anglican cause. In his zeal to promote the fortunes of the Church of England, however, Johnson proved to be insensitive to the religious and political anxieties that troubled his Congregational enemies. His arguments in favor of an Anglican episcopacy in North America and his attacks on Connecticut charter government for its support of the Congregational Church isolated Johnson from the main currents of New England thought and served to increase tensions between Anglicans and non-Anglicans. Nevertheless, the Anglican Church grew rapidly due to the efforts of Johnson and other SPG missionaries and assisted by a conservative backlash to the religious excesses associated with the Great Awakening. By the time of the American Revolution some ten percent of Connecticut's inhabitants identified with the Church of England.

After thirty years in his Stratford parish, Samuel Johnson in 1754 became the first president of King's College in New York City. He resigned this position in 1763 after the death of his second wife and returned to Stratford. He once again became rector of the Anglican Church and spent his remaining years caring for his family, continuing to write in favor of an Anglican episcopate in North America, and helping to train future Anglican priests.

Samuel Johnson was a college president, voluminous writer, a philosopher of some note, and a crucial figure in the establishment of Anglicanism in strongly Congregational Connecticut.

For Further Reading

Ellis, Joseph. The New England Mind in Transition. New Haven, Connecticut, 1973.

* Entry under revision.