Johnson, Samuel (2), Dd

Johnson, Samuel (2), D.D., an American divine, was born at Guilford, Conn., Oct. 14, 1696, and passed A.B. in 1714 at Yale College, then situated at Saybrook. On the removal of Yale to New Haven he became one of its tutors, and in 1720 pastor of the Congregational Church, West Haven. Determined to change his ecclesiastical relations, he went to England, and received episcopal ordination in 1723. He then visited Oxford and Cambridge, where he was made A.M., and returned to America. Upon his arrival he entered on the mission of Stratford, Conn., and formed the acquaintance of William Burnet, son of the bishop of Salisbury. His ministerial duties were now considerably increased, and his pen warmly engaged for some years in defense of episcopacy. In 1743 he was made D.D. by the University of Oxford. In 1744 he was appointed president of King's College, New York, in which office he continued till 1754, when he returned to Stratford, where he spent a tranquil and dignified old age, chiefly in literary labor. In 1746 he issued A System of Morality, and in 1752 A Compendium of Logic, Metaphysics, and Ethics, and other theological and miscellaneous treatises after this date. He died Jan. 6, 1772. — Sprague, Annals, 5, 52; Allibone, Dict. Eng. and Am. Auth. 2, 971. (E.deP.)