Elizabeth Johnson (1689–1752)

Elizabeth Johnson (née Jervis; 1689 – 17 March 1752), familiarly known as "Tetty", was the widow of Birmingham merchant Henry Porter, and later the wife of English writer Samuel Johnson, whom she predeceased.

Elizabeth was born on 4 February 1689 and baptised at Great Peatling on 16 February of that year. She was a daughter of William Jervis (21 June 1659 – January 1695) of Great Peatling, and his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Darell of Middle Temple. She was the middle daughter of three sisters and three brothers. As her eldest sister died at the age of 11 and the younger at the age of four, Elizabeth was the only daughter to reach adulthood.

In July 1708 Elizabeth inherited from her grandmother Elizabeth Jervis all her household goods, as well as her plate, rings and cash. She also inherited half of the residue of her grandmother's estate the other half going to her mother Anne.

Elizabeth married Henry Porter (bap. 12 July 1691 – September 1734) on 4 February 1715 (which was her 26th birthday). Henry was a Birmingham merchant, but he was not a successful businessman and on his death Elizabeth had to settle some of his debts. They had three children, all who died childless: Lucy (born 1715) lived in Lichfield with Samuel Johnson's mother and served in her shop; Jervis Henry (born 1718) became a naval officer and settled in London; Joseph (born about 1724) became a successful London business man.

Elizabeth and Henry Porter became friends of Johnson in 1732 (on first meeting him, she said to her daughter Lucy, "That is the most sensible man I ever met.") and Johnson courted her after Porter's death. His affectionate names for her, "Tetty" or "Tetsey," were regional contractions for the name "Elizabeth."

They married on 9 July 1735 at St. Werburgh's Church, Derby, where the event is reenacted annually. At the time he was 25, she 46, and neither the Johnson nor Porter families were enthusiastic about the marriage.

Her dowry of over £600 was invested in setting up Edial Hall, a private school at Edial near Lichfield. After its failure, in 1737 Johnson moved to London, where she joined him later that year.

In later life she suffered from ill-health, exacerbated by alcohol and opiate medicines. Robert Levet, a poverty-stricken doctor supported by Johnson, ascribed her death to the latter. She died at 63, and is buried in Bromley Parish Church. Her gravestone inscription says Formosae, cultae, ingeniosae, piae (in Latin: [dedicated to, or for] the beautiful, elegant, talented, dutiful).

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