Early History

I regret that when, as a small boy, my fathers sisters showed me a copy of the Family Tree and told me much of the early history, I was not interested - merely bored.

My father outlived both his brothers and sisters, and following his death I came by a pile of documentation, both regarding the Colonial College and the family. At one stage I became real1y interested. Unfortunately there was no copy of the Family Tree as such. Merely various documents and notes. I made determined efforts to reconstruct the family thread but without success. I had both ends of the story but came to a gap in the seventeenth century which I could not fill, and finally gave up.

Surprisingly, when, ten years ago, I moved From Harrow to Barnet I found no trace of all my notes and card files. I can only assume that they must have joined the College material which I piled into a wooden chest and sent to the Suffolk Record Office at Ipswich, back in the 1960s. The following details of the early history are, therefore, from my memory only.

My earliest Johnson "Came from Kent". Full stop. Johnson is a very common name and Kent, like Norfolk and Suffolk, is stuffed full of Johnsons, so I had no lead back beyond this man who, however, was appointed, or contracted, to build a defensive wall on the seaward side of Great Yarmouth in anticipation of an invasion by the Spanish, i.e. the Armada. Fortunately, the history of Great Yarmouth is very well documented. Viz: Palmers History of Great Yarmouth.

From that beginning the Johnsons, like most families, had their ups and downs. Many were farmers, landowners and merchants and others less successful. Several were Bailiffs of both Great Yarmouth arid Norwich. One was Clerk of the Navy, the Pepys of his time, when Great Yarmouth was the home of the navy, before it was moved to Portsmouth. One was a blacksmith - at Swaffham, if I remember.

The family Crest and motto, "Labore est Otare", date from 1660 when Charles II while on a Royal Progress to Great Yarmouth "stayed with Mr Johnson at his house, No 4 The Quay" (now a museum) and before departing conferred upon him a knighthood.

I have a painting on canvas of the Crest, together with dates.

During the Civil War the Johnsons of the day were on the side of the King. The city of Great Yarmouth raised no less than£30,000 for the cause and a Mr Richard Johnson was commissioned to convey that sum through enemy territory to the King in London. In a church in Holborn I once came upon a memorial to a Richard Johnson which bore the same Crest, and I wondered if he might have been the man.

For some years I worked from an office on a site now occupied by The Barbican. Alongside the building was a narrow lane known as "Three Herring Court". This intrigued me because Three Herrings form the crest of Great Yarmouth, and. I felt that there must be some connection between the two. However, all my searching of references to London streets proved in vain. Not a mention of Three Herring Court.

My attempts to "fill the gap" in the 1700s came to an end when, in the British Museum, I found reference to a Norfolk Johnson who, it stated, "He lived exceedingly well, did much good but died poor and left at least twelve sons". Now, from which of "at least twelve sons" might I be descended? So at that point I threw in the towel. Some years later, by pure chance I found the names of four of the sons in the register of a Cambridge College - but it did not help.

Coming to more recent times, I knew virtually little of my great grandparents, apart from the fact that they were farmers in Norfolk and at Boyton. However, you ask about the family of my grandfather, Robert Johnson, and here I am on firmer ground as I knew all his sons and daughters.

To my great regret my Johnson grandparents died some six or seven years before I was born. Strangely, I have been close to them all my life.

Of Roberts brothers and sisters I met only his younger brother, Arthur and his sister "Pip". I never knew her real name, she was always "great aunt Pip".

Robert and Arthur were in business as Civil Engineers, with offices at No 6 Pall Mall. When Robert retired to Boyton to organise the setting up of the College, Arthur went also. He and Pip lived at The Grove, and Arthur was the College secretary. Neither Pip or Arthur married. When I knew them they were living in a large house in Berners St Ipswich, where we used to play croquet on the lawn. Arthur was born with only one hand. In spite of this he was a keen mountaineer, and climbed every peak in Europe.

Roberts brother Frederick farmed at Boyton. He had two daughters, Mildred, who was mothers great friend and lived at Clacton, and Edith, who married a man called Washington and went to Canada, where he became Mayor of Toronto. There was also another brother of Robert who emigrated and farmed in New Zealand. Of others, I know not.

Robert Johnson: I had the marriage certificate of Robert and the birth certificates of all his children. (These I have passed on to my niece, Pat Woodruff, who Lives at Poole)

Robert married Eliza Miller (the Millers were farmers at Boyton) at Paddington Parish church on 16^th January 1861. The certificate was signed by their respective fathers - both described as farmers. Robert was described as a Civil Engineer, living at Tulse Hill.

Later, Robert built a large house at Walton-on-Thames, where his children wore born, before moving to Boyton Hall in the early 1870s. Of his later history you are well aware I never met any of the Miller family.

[Robert Johnson introduced the ring pull into the UK from the US]

Robert had two daughters and four sons. These, in birth sequence, were as follows:

Ethel Mary A Johnson: To her I owe my early introduction to Buddhism, Theosophy, - and philately. In her younger days she was leading lady in Fred Bensons Shakespearean Company and toured Europe and America. In December 1889 she married Henry Herbert Weltch, a professional pianist and lived at Aldeburgh. After his death she moved to Woodbridge, where she lived with her unmarried sister, Constance.

Constance, Marion Johnson: (always known as "Tod") I remember her as a really delightful lady. Humorous, kindly, well read and very knowledgeable. She never married and all the time I knew her she Lived with her sister, Ethel.

George Frederick Johnson: He was a very "horsey" man. He had a stud and training stables near Brentwood and was very successful with his horses, both nationally and internationally. He never married.

Charles Johnson: Charlie was a very clever landscape painter (as was his mother). He was also a great lover of nature , and traveled widely. He made a somewhat chancy living by selling his paintings - and doing a spot of poaching on the side. He lived at Woodbridge and married "a raven-haired good looker", who, according to my mother, was a gypsy. They had four remarkably good looking daughters, viz, Ida, Gladys, Vera and Ivy. (The latter known as Rooks, or Rookie , because of her dark hair).

Ida Johnson: was an actress and much married. The last time I saw her she was married to a doctor and living in the Canary Islands. She had no children.

Gladys Johnson: I met only twice. I do not recall her married name. Her husband ran a large transport business. They had children but are out of touch.

Vera Johnson: She is still alive but at 95 living in a nursing home at Woodbridge. She married Rhys Curjel, from a Sephardic Jewish family living in the Netherlands, who were prominent Amsterdam merchants and bankers. Rhys's great grandfather, Salomon Curjel, moved from Amsterdam to Denmark in the early nineteenth century. Rhys was a solicitor at Woodbridge. He was also the Town Clerk and commodore of the Deben sailing club. They had two daughters, both married, one in Australia and the other in France.

Ivy (Rookie) Johnson: married an artist named Angrave and lived at Chorleywood, Herts. She also was artistic, but her particular bent was womens fashions. For many years she was Fashion Editor for the "Daily Express". She had two children, Gail and John. Both now living in the USA.

Ernest, Arthur, Bennington, Johnson: (my father) Incidentally, Roberts four sons, all were named Bennington. The Benningtons were neighbouring farmers, at Boyton. My father was born at Walton-on-Thames In 1868. When he was aged about seven, and the family moved to Boyton, he was sent as a boarder to the old Grammar School at Dedham. (His initials are still to be seen carved on the brickwork.) Two or three years later he moved to Queen Elizabeths Grammar School, at Ipswich. Robert bought a house in Ipswich and where he installed a kindly relative to look after three of his sons during term time.

Following school my father toured around Europe for a while before being shipped off to Virginia in the USA. where he joined an uncle, Monty Miller, his mothers brother, who was sheep farming in a big way. He stayed there for three years, gaining experience of local farming practice, before returning and taking over the Boyton farms. While the College students participated in all areas of farm work this in no way excluded the need for a large staff of local labourers and the need to plan and arrange the day to day farming activities.

I was born at "Sunnyside", Gladstone Rd. Ipswich, although my early memories are of Gate Farm, Abberton, which my Father bought in 1908. Sadly, 1911 was a year of drought and a real scorcher. Crops failed, cattle had to he killed off and, like many others, my father had to sell, with considerable loss of capital.

In 1912 he joined Baden Powell in establishing at Waddeston in Sussex, what was known as "The Scout Farm". This was a Colonial College on a very modest scale. The intention was to provide basic farm training for senior scouts who were intending to farm in Canada, Australia, etc. It had a brief life due to the advent of World War I.

Before that, in 1913, we moved to Foxhole Farm, Fair Oak, in Hampshire, where we remained for the next seven years. Muriel, your mother, spent many happy weeks there during school holidays.

In 1920 my father became very ill, for a long period. The farm was sold and we moved to Southampton for a few months before transferring to Wellesley Rd, Colchester. The rest you know.

Godfrey Bennington Johnson: Robert's youngest child. He traveled widely, and lived for a while in Australia. When I first knew him he was farming at Stebbing, and later at Frating. He had two children: my cousin Barbara, now living at Blandford Forum, and Robert (Robin) retired and now living in Surrey. Thus the male Johnson line dies out with the departure of Robin and myself - neither of whom raised a male heir.

[Subsequent information on Godfrey from the records kindly supplied by William Breeze is as follows:

- Born on 9^th March 1871.

- Marriage record from PRO shows they were married in Christ Church, Chelsea, Feb. 19, 1895. Godfrey Bennington Johnson, 23, bachelor, profession agent, 39 Cedars Terrace, Queens Road, Battersea, son of Robert Johnson, company director. Charlotte Louisa Bennett, 24, "spinster," no profession, Warkleigh, N. Devon, daughter of Charles Bennett deceased, electrical engineer.

- A subsequent marriage record shows him married to Elsie Violet Gearing (aged 26) on his birthday the 9^th March 1911. The marriage certificate shows him as aged 39; that must be an error. He is shown as divorced, mechanical engineer, 17 Rosseter Gardens, Chelsea, son of Robert Johnson deceased of independent means. Elsie Violet Gearing of the same address, spinster, private secretary, daughter of Walter Gearing a wine and spirit merchant.

- Elsie was born on 20^th January 1885 at 108 Walton Street, Chelsea, daughter of Walter Gearing, a Grocer, and Sarah Jane Gearing (nee Moore).

- Godfrey died on 3^rd April 1940 at Heath House, Tendring, aged 69. His occupation is given as a Commission Agent of "Brooklyn", Frating, Essex.