Nathaniel Johnston

He was eldest son of John Johnston (d. 1657), by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Hobson of Usflete, Yorkshire. His father, a Scot, lived for some time at Reedness in Yorkshire, and became rector of Sutton-on-Derwent. Henry Johnston (died 1723) was another son.^[1]

Jonston proceeded M.D. from King's College, Cambridge, in 1656, having been incorporated at Cambridge M.A. in 1654 with a degree from the University of St Andrews.^[2] He was created a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians by the charter of James II, and was admitted on 12 April 1687. He practised at Pontefract, but took up the antiquities and natural history of Yorkshire.^[1]

Ralph Thoresby first made Johnston's acquaintance at Pontefract on 26 February 1682, and became a great friend and a correspondent. Johnston fell out of medical practice, moved to London in 1686, and became a High Tory pamphleteer. He lived at first at the Iron balcony in Leicester Street, next Leicester Fields. The Glorious Revolution deprived him of prospects. He died in London in 1705. He owned at the time property at and near Pontefract, sold by order of the court of chancery in 1707.^[1]

In 1686 Johnston published The Excellency of Monarchical Government, a folio of 490 pages, beginning with ancient history, and then discussing the royal power in England and its relation to the power of parliament. He largely followed Hobbes, and, besides much classical learning, shows considerable knowledge of English chroniclers and legal authorities. In 1687, in answer to a pamphlet of Sir William Coventry, he issued The Assurance of Abby and other Church Lands in England, the object of which is to demonstrate that even if the religious orders were restored in England, the possessors of the church lands confiscated by Henry VIII could not be disturbed. Johnston was answered by John Willes.^[1]

To defend James II's treatment of Magdalen College, Oxford, Johnston issued on 23 July 1688 The King's Visitatorial Power asserted, being an impartial Relation of the late Visitation of St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxford. In order to obtain information, he corresponded with Obadiah Walker; visited Oxford with Thomas Fairfax, and talked to Anthony Wood, but his information was mainly from the royal commissioners. In the same year he published a volume of political Enquiries, and subsequently The Dear Bargain … the State of the English Nation under the Dutch, anon.^[1]