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A Benedictine Conspirator: Henry Joseph Johnston (c. 1656–1723)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Geoffrey Scott O.S.B.
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Extract

To examine Jacobitism only as a post-1688 phenomenon leads to an inevitable neglect of formative influences which help explain why antipathy to the Revolution was so strident in the first generation of Jacobites. Henry Joseph Johnston’s career demonstrates the strength of these influences. He was the seventh son of a Yorkshire Anglican clergyman, and the brother of the antiquary and Non-Juror Dr. Nathaniel Johnston, ‘the prince of Yorkshire collectors’. Henry Johnston had been converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism sometime between 1671 and 1674, and, taking the name Joseph in religion, was to be professed as a monk in 1675 at the English Benedictine priory at Dieulouard in Lorraine. Benedictine monasticism not only had an immediate attraction for a convert antiquarian but it was also to provide Johnston entrance into court circles.

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Other
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , May 1990 , pp. 58 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 J. D. Martin, ‘The Antiquarian Collections of Nathaniel Johnston (1629–1705), Oxford B. Litt, thesis, 1956. D.N.B., ix, 950–1. J. Kirk, Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century, ed. J. H. Pollen and E. Burton, 1909, 141. J. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, 1885, iii, 642–6. J. Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby, 1830, i, 39.

2 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1530–1850, 1975, 69–74 Google Scholar. Miller, J., Popery and Politics, Cambridge 1973, 1, 12, 16, 17, 19, 22, 50, 91–3, 106 Google Scholar. Hay, D., Annalists and Historians, 1977, 151–4.Google Scholar A. Wood, Athenae Oxoniensis, 1721, i, ‘To the Reader’. O. Chadwick, From Bossuet to Newman, Cambridge 1957, 60, speaks of the end of the seventeenth century as ‘an age when for the first time since the Reformation, there was an international amity of scholarship’.

3 Smith, R. J., The Gothic Bequest, Cambridge 1987, 1–2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for an ‘uncorrupted Catholicism’ in the medieval period. Martin, ‘Collections’, 9, 14–18, 114, 162–5, 169, 171–177, 180, 182, 184–9, 194. Surtees Society, Durham 1859, xxxvi, 6.

4 Douai Abbey, Woolhampton, Weldon, ‘Memorials’,i, 481; Clothing Book, 1674 14 April entry. Ampleforth Abbey, York, Dieulouard Confraternity of Rosary, 1674 4 March entry.

5 Lunn, D., The English Benedictines 1540–1688, 1980, 110, 133 Google Scholar. Wood, Athenae, ii, 529, the convert Cressy (1605–74) wrote his defence against those who said he had joined a monastery out of want of subsistence,or to be an idle Drone in the Charterhouse ‘where he might live as warmly as lapt over in Lambskins, and like a Bee live in a plentiful Hive fed with the purest Amber Honey’. Martin, ‘Collections’, 169, 184, 186–8, In June 1678, Dugdale wrote he had heard Johnston had ‘gone into a Cloyster… I am sorry that he hath thus buried himself alive, considering how well he might have lived in the world and been a comfort to his friends by his honest labours, so dextrous a Hand at etching and painting’. Even so, Dugdale had criticised his hand-writing whilst he was employing him. Bodl. Top. Yorks C 27 f128, 185, show Johnston visited two well-known Yorkshire Catholic families (Swale and Stapleton). The latter felt Johnston to be ‘a very ingenious person and one deserving all incouragement imaginable’.

6 Lunn, Benedictines, 110, 133. P. Salvin and H. P. S. Cressy, The Life of Father Augustine Baker O.S.B. 1575–1641, (ed. J.McCann), 1933, 202. Wood, Athenae, ii, 3–9. Farmer, D., ‘Historical Influences on the Early Development of the E.B.C’, English Benedictine History Symposium Papers, i,1,1981,5–16.Google Scholar

7 For Cressy, his Church-History of Brittany, 1668, ‘The Preface’, parag. 49; DNB, v, 74–6; Wood, Athenae, 528–31; Miller, Popery, 18; Salvin, Baker, 182, 203.

8 Cressy, Church-History, ‘Epistle’, and ‘The Preface’.

9 Miller, Popery, 114–15. Trevor-Roper, H., Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans, London 1987, 183–85.Google Scholar

10 Miller, Popery, 30–33, 51, 53, 59, 79–90, 96–100, 121, 125201336, 155–88. J. C. Jeaffreson, Middlesex Country Records, 1892, iv, 84–6, 89, 90, 91, 119, 120, 277–9, 281.

11 Kirk, J., Roman-Catholick Principles, 1815, 9, 72–8.Google Scholar Birrell, T. A., Catholic Allegiance and the Popish Plot, Nijmegen 1950 Google Scholar, and his ‘James Maurus Corker and Dryden’s Conversion’, English Studies, 54, 1973, 461–9. Kenyon, J. P., The Popish Plot, Harmondsworth 1972, 265 Google Scholar. Catholic Record Society, xlvii, 1953, 226. Corker’s Queries to Dr. Sacheverell from North-Britain, (c.1710), with its discussion on passive obedience and non-resistance, illustrates how English Catholics might move from acknowledgement of Stuart legitimacy to a post-Revolutionary Jacobite assertion of Stuart indefeasibility.

12 Martin, ‘Collections’, 40, 41, 48, 292. Add. 10118, f.98. T. Hearne, The Remains, (ed. J. Buchanan-Brown, 1966, 417. DNB, ix, 956. CSPD June 1687–Feb 1689, 75,502. Weldon, ‘Memorials’, iv, 1–2. J. S. Clarke, The Life of James II, 1816,ii,79,116.

13 Weldon, ‘Memorials’,iv, 74, 81, 82. CSPD June 1687–Feb 1689, 115, 279. Ms. Jeslyn Medoff informs me that the Jacobite poet and authoress, Jane Barker, also seems to have been instructed as a convert at St. James’s; see her poem ‘Fidelia having seen the Convent at St. James’s.

14 Compare this attitude with James II’s belief in toleration as the best method for introducing Catholicism, see Miller, Popery, 201, 227

15 Assurance, 181, 202. Weldon, ‘Memorials’, iv, 9–10. CSPD 1687–1689, 2182. Lunn, Benedictines, 71, 134, 139. Miller, Popery, 201, 215, 227. Douglas, D. C., English Scholars, 1943, 37.Google Scholar

16 Weldon, ‘Memorials’, v, 510.

17 J. B. Bossuet, An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Matters of Controversie, and A Pastoral Letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux to the New Catholics of his diocese, 1686 (trans. H. J. Johnston); (H. J. Johnston), A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom’s Exposition…in answer to a Book Entitled, An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England, with a letter from the said Bishop, 1686, A Reply to the Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrin of the Church of England: Being a Further Vindication of the Bishop of Condom’s Exposition, 1687, A full Answer to the Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doetrin of the Church of England: In a Letter to the Defender, 1687, A Letter from the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom, to the Author of a late Discourse concerning the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, 1687.

17a Gillow, Dictionary, iii, 642–6, gives three other supposed translations by Johnston of Bossuet’s works, 1686–7, and Bodl. catalogue gives another. The bound copy of most of Johnston’s works, now at Douai Abbey, is dedicated in his own hand to the English Benedictine library of St. Gregory’s at Douai, France. For Bossuet, Gay, P., The Enlightenment, London, 1966, 75–80.Google Scholar

18 Weldon, ‘Memorials’, 391; vi, Addenda, fl–14. Add. 10118, f432, ‘Mercatura…Thus Englished by J. Johnston.

The Truck.

Wee English freed ye Dutch from Spanish Don They, gratefull, set their Orange on our Throne. Unequal Truck! We freely freedom give. They sell us Bondage. We are like to live’.

Douai Abey, Cab V12, Hewlett MS, 189–90. DNB, xvi, 586. Wood, Athenae,531, 993–4.

19 Bossuet, , Oeuvres, Paris 1841, xvii, 179.Google Scholar

20 Hearne, , Remains, 417.Google Scholar

21 Miller, Popery, 208, 244, 256. Cabrol, F., ‘Bossuet, ses relations avec Angleterre’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, xxvii, 1931, 535–71.Google Scholar

22 (Johnston), Vindication, 8–16, 114–19; Reply, 178–84; Full Answer, 11. N. Sykes, William Wake, Cambridge 1957, i, 17–24. Bossuet, Oeuvres, xi, 535–44. The Ampleforth copy of Johnston’s Tracts is bound up with Wake’s replies.

23 (Johnston), Vindication, 67, 104, 106–07, Full Answer, 4.

24 Berks. Record Office, Downshire MSS, Trumbull Add. MS 116, 29 Feb. 1695/6. Dolan, G., ‘James II and the Benedictines in London’, Downside Review, 1899, 103 Google Scholar. Catholic Record Society, xxxviii, 1941, xx, 30, 31. Weldon, ‘Memorials’, v, 321. CSPD June 1687–Feb 1689, 2104; Feb 1689–April 1690, 424. Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster, Main Series, xxxvi, 55.

25 Weldon, ‘Memorials’, v, 51–2. Ampleforth, Allanson MSS, ‘History’, I, 548. Add. 37, 661, pp. 285–6, 306, 309.

26 Add. 37,661,pp. 21, 29, 65, 140, 147, 149, 151–6, 163, 306–07, 343–50. Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster, Browne MSS, 141. Bodl. Carte MSS 256. Hopkins, P. A., ‘The Commissions for Superstitious Lands of the 1690s’, Recusant History, xv, 4, Oct 1980, 265–82 Google Scholar, and his ‘Sham Plots and Real Plots in the 1690s’, in ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism 1689–1759, ed. E. Cruickshanks, Edinburgh, 1982, 89–110. I am grateful to Dr. Hopkins for information on Johnston’s involvement in Jacobitism in the 1690s.

27 Ampleforth, Allanson, ‘History’ I, 565–66, note 2, ‘Acts’ I, 450–1, Acta Capitulorum, 443–67. Weldon, ‘Memorials’ iv, 84. Henry’s brother, Nathaniel, may have been involved in the London Jacobite spy system of the 1690s, see Martin, , ‘Collections’, 65.Google Scholar

28 Porteus, T. C., ‘New Light on the Lancashire Jacobite Plot, 1692–4’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, i, 1934–5Google Scholar. For Tempest, see Aveling, H., ‘The Catholic Recusancy of the Yorkshire Fairfaxes. Part IV’, Recusant History, vi, 2, April 1961, 98 Google Scholar. HMC, Finch III, lxxi, 362. Hopkins, ‘Commissions’, 270. For Johnston, see W. Beaumont (ed.), ‘The Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694’, Chetham Society, Old Series, xviii, 1853, xxvii, li, lii, and Porteus, ‘New Light’.

29 Wall’s known aliases were Marsh and Marshall. Hopkins, ‘Commissions’, 270, 273, 27, and his ‘Sham Plots’, 92, 94. Weldon, ‘Memorials’, iv, 1. A. Kenny (ed.), ‘English College, Rome: Responsa. Part II’, Catholic Record Society, lv, 1963, 494. Kenyon, Plot, 170, 174, 193–5. HMC, Finch IV, 113.

30 Lambeth Palace MS 922/57. Nat. Library of Scotland, MS 14, 266, ff.54, 55v, 56v, 58v, 61v, 65 etc, 74v, 79 (Naime). Bodl. Carte MSS 208 f.l28v, for example of cipher. Garrett, J., The Triumphs of Providence, Cambridge 1980, 49 Google Scholar. Wall’0s alias Marshall’s 1686 sermon, Render to Caesar, London 1687, contains a denunciation of rebellion against lawful government.

31 Catholic Record Society, xxxviii, 31. For a poem celebrating the death of Queen Mary by the Jacobite Wilfred Reeve and Johnston’s fellow Benedictine, see Add. 10118 f450. Garrett, ibid, 59, 62, 68, 73–9, for description of Plot.

32 Lambeth Palace MS 933/v/84. Garrett, ibid, 106–07.

33 Garrett, ibid, 108–09. Rookwood, great grandson of a former royalist conspirator, was younger brother of the monk, Francis Rookwood (1660–1750), at this time a missioner in England. Alexander Knightley, called Christopher in Benedictine sources, was brother of the monk, John Maurus Knightley (ob. 1708), who became Abbot of Lambspring in 1697.

34 Garrett, ibid, 109, 110, 112, 116. Lambeth MS 933/V/84. Howell, xii, 1301, 1303, 1321, 1348, 1352–54; xiii, 19, 294–95. The Dog Tavern Riot, 15 June 1695, involved Porter and other Jacobites’ attempting a demonstration after becoming drunk. A fight ensued and the demonstrators were imprisoned.

35 Add. 10118 f441, for Benedictine source on Knightley’s plan.

36 Garrett, ibid, 130, 134.

37 CSPD 1696, 96, 254, 340. Naime, f.114.

38 Lambeth MS XIV/942/123. Add. 10118 f363v. 1Downside Review, iv, 1885, 133. Garrett, ibid, 247–8. At Lambspring, Alexander Knightley had earlier met the plotter Sherbum, presumably a relative of the President of the Benedictines, Joseph Sherburne (1681–97), (Nottingham University Library, PwA 2465, 2 Mar. 1695/6).

39 Whelan, B., ‘Disputed Election at Lambspring’, Downside Review, lxxviii, 253, Autumn 1960, 274–85 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Garrett, ibid, Chapters 11–15, especially pp. 204–05,266.

41 Lambeth Palace MS 933/V/84. Add. 37, 661, p. 59. Sir John, an Anglican, seems to have been related to Father Francis Fenwick, prior of St. Edmund’s, Paris, through whom Melfort corresponded with Sir John, and who was in contact with Johnston (BL Add. 37, 661, pp. 22, 59).

42 Ampleforth, Allanson, ‘History’ I, 586, 590.

43 Weldon, , ‘Memorials’, iv, 312 Google Scholar. Orthodox Journal, Jan 31, 1835, 58.

44 Lambeth Palace MS 932/57; 1029/79. Catholic Record Society, lvi, 1904, 113–64 contains the bulk of these papers, see especially 115, 132.

45 Lambeth Palace MS 1029/72, 77, 83, 84. Weldon, , ‘Memorials’, v, 318–20.Google Scholar

46 Weldon, ibid, vi,320–21. CSPD 1698, 74. Garrett, ibid, 154. Nairne ff. 133, 134, 137v.

47 Lambeth MS 933/V/84. Dr. Hopkins finds the ‘Vindication’ unconvincing, given the degree of intimacy Johnston had with the main plotters. He suggests that the monk was using in his ‘Vindication’ a contemporary legal convention which allowed him to speak of himself as morally and legally innocent, because the ‘use of perjurers (in this case, the witnesses against Johnston, like Captain Richard Fisher) even to support a true charge, entitled the accused to consider himself innocent’, Hopkins, ‘Sham Plots’, 95.

48 It is clear from this that Johnston knew the contemporary ruling of moral theologians that a tyrant by usurpation (tyrannus in titulo) could only be killed by legitimate authority granting a mandate to inflict capital punishment after the use of ordinary forms of law had proved unavailing. James had never given this mandate. As the highest authority, he had preferred an armed invasion as the permissible means to remove the usurper, cf. F. O. Blundeli, Old Catholic Lancashire, 1938, ii, 32, the advice of a Carthusian confessor to a penitent involved in the 1694 Lancashire Plot, that ‘it would be wilful murder if King William were killed except in open battle’.

49 P. Burger, ‘Spymaster to Louis XIV: A Study of the Papers of the Abbé Eusebe Renaudot’, in Cruickshanks, E., Ideology and Conspiracy, 136 Google Scholar. T. Hearne, Collections, Oxford 1886, ii, 19, Remains, 417.

50 Bodl. Carte MSS 210/374–7. Weldon, ‘Memorials’ iv, 74. RA (Stuart) 176/121. G. E. Cockayne, Complete Baronetage, Exeter 1904, iv, 197.

51 Scott, G., ‘“Sacredness of Majesty”: The English Benedictines and the Cult of King James II’, Royal Stuart Papers, XXIII, Huntingdon 1984, 4, 7 Google Scholar, and my ‘The Collector: a look at Benedictine Archives through the eyes of Bro. Benet Weldon, 1674–1713’, Catholic Archives, vi, 1986, 27. Bodl. Rawlinson MSS D 1091 fflr, 15v, 61r.