Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnson, Humphry
JOHNSON, HUMPHRY (fl. 1713), calligrapher and mathematician, lived in Old Bedlam Court, Bishopsgate, London, where he taught writing and arithmetic; and afterwards removed to Hornsey, where he kept a boarding-school till his death. In his book on arithmetic he says that he ‘received his apprenticeship with that celebrated penman, Mr. George Shelley, now writing-master in Christ's Church Hospital.’ A well-engraved portrait of Johnson, in a wig, is prefixed to his ‘Arithmetic.’
Johnson's ‘New Treatise of Practical Arithmetic’ was published in London, 1710, and a second edition in 1719. It is a practical work, suitable for commercial purposes, with good definitions, and the rules clearly put. His ‘Youth's Recreation,’ London, 1711, consists of fifteen pages of engraved copper-plate examples of penmanship. A second edition appeared in 1713.
[Noble's Biog. Hist. ii. 354, 360.]