Samuel Johnson (pamphleteer)

[1] From a humble background, Samuel Johnson was educated at St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and took orders.

Johnson's 1682 pamphlet Julian the Apostate was a reply to a sermon A Discourse of the Sovereign Power earlier the same year by George Hickes;[3] it was printed by John Darby.

[5] In 1683 he followed it with Julian's Arts, but the timing turned out badly, with the revelations of the Rye House Plot, and the pamphlet was held back.

These included pamphlets from Hickes (Jovian), John Bennet (Constantius the Apostate), Edward Meredith, and Thomas Long.

Russell's final speech before his execution was printed, and Johnson, Darby, and Gilbert Burnet were questioned about their involvement in its publication.

Frontispiece of a 1689 collection of works by Samuel Johnson
James II as Duke of York (early 1660s) by John Greenhill . Johnson was a critic of the Duke of York, who later ascended the throne as James II of England .
The title page of Johnson's A History and Defence of Magna Charta (1st edition, 1769)