He had a brother of the name of Andrew, who, for some years,
kept the ring at Smithfield, appropriated to wrestlers and boxers. Our
author used to say, that he was never thrown or conquered. Michael, the
father, died December 1731, at the age of seventy-six: his mother at
eighty-nine, of a gradual decay, in the year 1759. Of the family nothing
more can be related worthy of notice. Johnson did not delight in talking
of his relations. "There is little pleasure," he said to Mrs. Piozzi,
"in relating the anecdotes of beggary."
Johnson derived from his parents, or from an unwholesome nurse, the
distemper called the king's evil. The Jacobites at that time believed in
the efficacy of the royal touch, and, accordingly, Mrs. Johnson
presented her son, when two years old, before queen Anne, who, for the
first time, performed that office, and communicated to her young patient
all the healing virtue in her power[c]. He was afterwards cut for that
scrophulous humour, and the under part of his face was seamed and
disfigured by the operation. It is supposed, that this disease deprived
him of the sight of his left eye, and also impaired his hearing. At
eight years old, he was placed under Mr. Hawkins, at the free school in
Lichfield, where he was not remarkable for diligence or regular
application. Whatever he read, his tenacious memory made his own.
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