George William Johnson was his brother, and they were for some time employed together in their father's salt-works at Heybridge, Maldon, Essex.
[1] With his brother, Johnson was admitted a member of Gray's Inn on 6 January 1832, and called to the bar on 8 June 1836.
He had chambers at 14 Gray's Inn Square, went the western circuit, and attended the Winchester and Hampshire sessions.
Major works on his own, all published in London, were:[1] With Edward Cresy, Johnson wrote On the Cottages of Agricultural Labourers, 1847.
From 1840 he ran The Farmer's Almanac and Calendar with William Shaw; from 1843 he worked with other writers to bring out The Annual Register of Agricultural Instruction.