earliest English music for the church extant, and includes the motet, ‘Sabbatum Maria’ (in die Pasce), printed by Burney (ii. 593). The Complaint of Anne Boleyn, a 4, ‘Defyled is my name,’ was printed by Hawkins (iii. 921). There are preserved in manuscript the motets, ‘Ave Dei Patris Filia,’ a 5 (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5059); ‘Gaude Maria Virgo,’ and ‘Dum transisset Sabbatum’ (ib. 17802–5); ‘Benedicam Domino,’ ‘O Lord, with all my heart’ (ib. 4900); ‘Ave plena gratia’ (ib. 29240, in tablature); ‘Ave Domini Filia’ (Royal College of Music Library); ‘A Knell,’ a 8, ‘In nomine’ (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 31390). The part-song ‘Tye the Mare, Tom, the Boy,’ is attributed, probably in error, to Johnson in Ritson's ‘Ancient Songs.’ Fétis states that he published a collection of organ fugues, which were re-printed in Amsterdam in 1770.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. col. 586; Burney's Hist. of Music, ii. 556; Cat. Sacred Harmonic Society, p. 203.]
JOHNSON, ROBERT (d. 1559), canon of Worcester, took the degree of bachelor of the civil law at Cambridge in 1531 (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. i. 203). He was appointed a canon of the church of Rochester on its refoundation in 1541, and was presented to a canonry in the church of Worcester on 10 July 1544 on the death of Dr. Thomas Baggard, whom he also succeeded as chancellor of that diocese. He had the prebend of Putston Major in the church of Hereford, 9 Sept. 1551, and was in that year incorporated B.C.L. at Oxford (Wood, Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 133). In 1552 he supported Henry Joliffe in a controversy with Hooper [see Joliffe, Henry]. Johnson was presented by Queen Mary to the rectory of Clun, Shropshire, 10 April 1553; installed prebendary of Stillington in the church of York 22 Feb. 1555–6; collated to the rectory of Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, in July 1558; and was admitted to the prebend of Norwell Overhall in the collegiate church of St. Mary, Southwell, 7 Sept. 1558. He died in 1559.
He was ‘esteemed learned and well read in the theological faculty,’ and wrote a book in Latin against Hooper, but did not publish it. After his death the manuscript came into the hands of his friend Henry Joliffe, who published it at Antwerp, with his own reply to Hooper, in 1564 (4to).
[Addit. MS. 5873, f. 21; Cranmer's Works (Cox), ii. 492; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 510; Kennett's MS. 46, p. 308; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 527, ii. 584, iii. 79, 439; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 902; Rymer's Fœdera, 1713, xv. 344; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 442.]
JOHNSON, ROBERT (1540–1625), archdeacon of Leicester, born at Stamford in 1540, was third and younger son of Maurice Johnson, of All Saints parish, and Jane, his wife, daughter of Henry Lacey of Stamford, a family which claimed descent from the De Laceys, earls of Lincoln. Maurice Johnson was a Roman catholic, and in 1523 represented the borough in parliament along with David Cecil, the grandfather of Lord Burghley. He died in 1551, leaving six children. Robert was entrusted to the care of an uncle, one Robert Smith, who sent him to be educated at the grammar school at Peterborough. On 18 March 1557–8 Johnson matriculated as a sizar at Clare Hall, Cambridge. Thence he migrated, while still an undergraduate, to Trinity College, where he was admitted a junior fellow, along with seventeen others, 1 Oct. 1563, and subsequently filled the office of steward. He commenced M.A. in 1564, and on 20 Feb. 1565 was incorporated at Oxford. According to his son's account, he subsequently, ‘by licence under Queen Elizabeth's own hand,’ travelled in France, and ‘studied for some time in Paris.’ Prior to 1571 he became chaplain to Sir Nicholas Bacon, the lord keeper, and in that year he proceeded to the degree of B.D. at Cambridge. He was canon of Peterborough in 1570, and was installed canon of Norwich 26 May in the same year, during which he also obtained a prebend at Rochester, and his name disappeared from the bursar's books at Trinity College. According to Strype, besides discharging the duties of chaplain at Gorhambury, he officiated as a minister at St. Albans. In 1571 his scruples with respect to the prayer-book and the ritual of the church led to his being summoned to Lambeth, where the Three Articles were tendered for his acceptance. On his refusal to sign them he was suspended (4 July) from his ministerial functions. Within a few weeks, however, he submitted (cf. Strype, Life of Parker, ii. 70–1). On 30 July 1572 he was installed canon of Windsor, a preferment which he continued to hold until his death. Archbishop Parker, who does not seem to have forgiven his puritanic tendencies, wrote to Burghley of him as ‘cocking abroad with his four several prebends … both against statute and his oath.’
On 16 April 1574 he was instituted rector of North Luffenham, Rutland, and in the following year resigned his prebend at Peterborough. His son describes him as habitually resident, a painful preacher, and a keeper of good hospitality. His ample means were the result partly of his pluralities and partly of the property acquired by his first two marriages,
