Joseph Johnson (publisher) - Early Life

Early Life

Johnson was the second son of Rebecca Turner Johnson and John Johnson, a Baptist yeoman who lived in Everton, Liverpool. Religious Dissent marked Johnson from the beginning of his life, as two of his mother's relatives were prominent Baptist ministers and his father was a deacon. Liverpool, at the time of Johnson's youth, was fast becoming a bustling urban centre and was one of the most important commercial ports in England. These two characteristics of his home—Dissent and commercialism—remained central elements in Johnson's character throughout his life.

At the age of fifteen, Johnson was apprenticed to George Keith, a London bookseller who specialized in publishing religious tracts such as Reflections on the Modern but Unchristian Practice of Innoculation. As Gerald Tyson, Johnson's major modern biographer, explains, it was unusual for the younger son of a family living in relative obscurity to move to London and to become a bookseller. Scholars have speculated that Johnson was indentured to Keith because the bookseller was associated with Liverpool Baptists. Keith and Johnson published several works together later in their careers, which suggests that the two remained on friendly terms after Johnson started his own business.