t
brought up or apprenticed for the space of seven years, an evil example
of all others offending in such like case." Michael's defence was that
he was "tanned for" and did not tan himself, he being only "a merchant in
skins tradeing to Ireland, Scotland and the furthermost parts of
England." The only known example of Michael Johnson's handwriting is
this defence. Michael was committed for trial but acquitted. It is
probable, however, that this prosecution laid the foundation of his ruin.

But I must pass on to the other branch: the family of Dr. Johnson's
mother. Here Dr. Johnson did himself a great injustice, for he had a
genuine right to count his mother's "an old family," although the term is
in any case relative. At any rate he could carry his pedigree back to
1620. "In the morning," says Boswell, "we had talked of old families,
and the respect due to them. Johnson said--

"'Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are arguing for
yourself. I am for supporting the principle, and I am disinterested
in doing it, as I have no such right.'"

Nevertheless, Boswell, in this opening chapter, refers to the mother as
"Sarah Ford, descended of an ancient race of substantial yeomanry in
Warwickshire," and Johnson's epitaph upon his mother's tomb describes her
as "of the ancient family of Ford." Thus one is considerably bewildered
in attempting to reconcile Johnson's attitude. The only one of his
family for whom he seems to have had a good word was Cornelius Harrison,
of whom, writing to Mrs. Thrale, he said that he was "perhaps the only
one of my relations who ever rose in fortune above penury or in character
above neglect." This Cornelius was the son of John Harrison, who had
married Johnson's aunt, Phoebe Ford. Johnson's account of Uncle John in
his _Annals_ is not flattering, but he was the son of a Rector of
Pilborough, whose father was Sir Richard Harrison, one of the gentlemen
of the King's Bedchamber, and a personality of a kind. Cornelius, the
reputable cousin, died in 1748, but his descendants seem to have been a
poor lot, whatever his ancestors may have been. Mr. Reade traces their
history with all the relentlessness of the genealogist.

Johnson's great-grandfather was one Henry Ford, a yeoman in Birmingham.
One of his sons, Henry, Johnson's grand-uncle, was born in 1628. He
owned property at West Bromwich and elsewhere, and was a fellow of
Clifford's Inn, London. Then we come