He subsequently wrote the anonymous Ludgate, What It Is: Not What It Was, a critical essay condemning the British debtors' prison system, which was printed by his brother Thomas.

He commissioned Green in the printing of the Gospel of Matthew, Book of Genesis, and Psalms, and presented these works to the corporation as examples of what a completed Algonquin Bible would look like.

[22][25] i.e." And shall serve the aid President and Society and their Successors in New England aforesaid in the Art of a printer for he printinge of the Bible in the Indian language and such other Books as he shall be directed to print for and duringe the terme of Three yeares".

[29][h] By 1661, Johnson, Green, and with the assistance of John Eliot and James Printer in the translation of English to the Massachusett language, printed 1,500 copies of the New Testament.

His reputation for disorderly conduct notwithstanding and with the Insistence of John Elliot and the corporation, Johnson was allowed to remain in Cambridge so he could complete his commission to print the Indian Bibles, or until August, 1664.

[25] This constituted the first prohibition on the liberty of the press in the colonies, placed by the General Court in October, 1662, where the approval of three official licensers was required for any private printing to occur.

[7] In 1637 King Charles had passed a Star Chamber decree regulating the complete control and censoring of any religious, political or other literature they deemed seditious or otherwise questionable.

For winning the affections of the young woman, Johnson was fined five pounds, and for his threats he was put under bonds as a measure for prompting him in keeping the peace.

Prompted by the insistence of John Eliot, the General Court finally concurred and accepted Johnson's petitions, with certain restrictions, and permitted him to set up his printing house in Boston on, May 30, 1674,[52][53][o] becoming the first printer to run his own press in the American colonies.

[2] Shortly after Johnson's petition was accepted he was elected "college printer", an action, according to historian Duniway, "probably taken with the hope of retaining in Cambridge the only well-trained printer in the colony", but Johnson regardless moved to Boston, and, however, he was taken sick, possibly from smallpox,[p] and didn't live long enough to enjoy the favorable decision the Court handed down to him, and lived there until his death, December 25, 1674, shortly thereafter.

[56][57] From 1669 to 1671 Johnson, sometimes in cooperation with Green, produced works that were of special significance to trends in American publishing, during which time they printed four books which proved important for their historical and literary content.

In 1670 two volumes of poetry: Meat out of the Eater, by Michael Wigglesworth, a lengthy work about the benefits of afflictions, and Philip Pain's Daily Meditations, originally printed by Johnson, but no copies are known to exist.

The number of books he printed, by himself, or with Samuel Green, are historically significant, and serve to reveal the changing reading habits in colonial New England.

Johnson brought to Massachusetts the technical knowledge of printing that was in short supply and badly needed, helping to make publishing take root and flourish in the colonies.