The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

  Knight, Joseph (fl. 1769–77), a Negro who claimed his freedom in the Court of Session: 16, 638

  Knolles, Richard ($$), historian and translator; best known for The Generall Historie of the Turkes (1603); translated Jean Bodin’s La republique (1606); produced an unpublished translation of Camden’s Britannia; writing style praised by S.J. in no. 122 of The Rambler: 59, 1022 n. 48

  Knowles, Mrs Mary (1733–1807), poet; on intimate terms with S.J.; author of Compendium of a Controversy on Water-Baptism (ijj6); her account, ‘Dialogue between Dr Johnson and Mrs Knowles’, rejected by J.B. as inauthentic; account on the conversion to Quakerism of Jane Harry later published in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1791): 560, 677–80, 682–4 andn. a

  Knox, John (1720–90), bookseller and economic improver; expert on the possibilities of fishing; author of Observations on the Northern Fisheries (1786); closely tied to the Highland Society of London; said to have been the real compiler of William Guthrie’s New System of Commercial Geography (1770): 425, 426

  Knox, Dr Vicesimus (1752–1821), headmaster and writer; head of Tonbridge School, Kent (1778–1812); author of Essays Moral and Literary (1778) and Liberal Education (1781); educational reformer: 123 n. a, 945–6, 983 andn. b, 984 n. a

  Kristrom, Mr (fl. 1772), a Swede: 343

  LaBruyere, Jean de (1645–96), French essayist and satiric moralist; author of the influential Les Caracteres de Theophraste traduits du grec avec Les Caracteres ou les moeurs de cesiecle (1688): 115, 1023 n. 82

  Lactantius, Caecilius Firmianus (fl. late 3rd century ad); Christian apologist; reputed to be the author of De Mortibus Persecutorum, a gleeful account of the sufferings of the emperors who persecuted the Christians: 593

  Lade, Sir John (1759–1838), 2nd Baronet; Mr Thrale’s nephew: 996, 1071 n. 1285

  Langley, Revd William (c.1722–95), headmaster of Ashbourne Grammar School: 596

  Langton, Cardinal Stephen (c.i 150–1228), Archbishop of Canterbury; one of the great churchmen of the English Middle Ages, influential in the composition of Magna Carta: 135

  Langton, Diana (c. 1742–1809), Bennet Langton Jr’s second sister and wife of Revd Robert Uvedale: 271

  Langton Elizabeth (d. 1790), Bennet Langton Jr’s eldest sister: 268, 271, 338, 910–11

  Langton, Elizabeth (1777–1804), Bennet Langton Jr’s fourth daughter: 637

  Langton, George (1772–1819), eldest son of Bennet Langton Jr; succeeded father in his estate: 338, 412, 846, 911

  Langton, Jane (1776–1854), second daughter of Bennet Langton Jr and Mary Langton; S.J.’s god-daughter: 913

  Langton, Juliet (c.i757–91), Bennet Langton Jr’s youngest sister and wife of Revd William Brackenbury: 271

  Langton, Mary (1773–96), first daughter of Bennet Langton Jr and Mary Langton: 911

  Langton, Mrs (c.i 712–93), mother of Bennet Langton Jr; wife of Bennet Langton Sr; daughter of Edmund Turner of Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire: 175, 181 n. a, 191, 251, 268, 271, 332, 335, 338, 911

  Langton, Peregrine (1703–66), of Partney, second son of Bennet Langton Jr and Mary Langton; married Miss Massingberd of Gunby and took her name: 269 and nn. a, b and c

  Langton Jr, Bennet (1737–1801), friend of S.J.; as a young man, was so interested in The Rambler that he obtained an introduction to S.J.; original member of the Literary Club (c.1764); major in the Lincolnshire militia; famous for his Greek scholarship; succeeded S.J. as professor of ancient literature at the Royal Academy (1788): 29, 63, 109 n. a, 112, 133 n. a, 134–6 and n. a, 137, 142 and n. a, 157, 162, 174–5, $$, 179–80 and n. a, 181, 190, 191 n. b, 202, 221 n. a, 228, 251, 252, 268, 269 and n. c, 282 n. a, 284, 286, 294, 296 n. b, 322, 325, 332, 338 n. a, 359, 360, 362, 383, 393, 397, 398, 399, 410,411, 418,423, 433,443, 444, 447, 449, 454, 463, 506, 508 n. a, 539, 564 n. a, 566, 569, 575, 585, 587, 588, 592, 609–10, 627 n. b, 637, 644, 659, 660, 663–4, 674, 676, 677, &99, 701, 706, 707, 715,718, 721 andn. a, 723, 731, 738,749, 751, 753, 763, 765–6, 771, 773–4, 776–9, 796, 803, 807, 816, 837, 845 and n. c, 864, 872, 890, 891, 895, 910, 911n. a, 913, 918 and n. a, 920, 935, 939, 940, 953, 957, 964, 976 n. a, 979, 989 n. a, 992 and n. a, ^^

  Langton Sr, Bennet (1696–1769), ‘Old Mr. Langton’, father of Bennet Langton Jr; descendant of the old family of the Langtons of Langton, near Spilsby in Lincolnshire: 172, 179–80, 191, 228, 251, 268, 271

  Langton, various members of Bennet Langton Jr’s family not mentioned by name: grandfather (George, 1647–1727), 935; an aunt (?Elizabeth, d. c. 1787), 338, 910–11

  Lansdowne, George Granville, Baron (1666–1735), Tory politician and writer; author of the plays TheJew of Venice (1701) and The British Enchanters (1706); Poems on Several Occasions (1712) criticized by Johnson for its slavish imitation of Waller; praised by Pope in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735); Secretary at War (1710); lost all offices after the accession of George I; one of the triumvirate directing James III’s affairs in France during the Atterbury plot: 136 and n. a

  Lapouchin, Mme (Natalia Lopukhina) (fl. 1743): 707

  LaTrobe, Revd Benjamin (1728–86), Moravian minister: 586, 995, 1049 n. 679

  Laud, Dr William (1573–1645), Archbishop of Canterbury (1633); president of St John’s College, Oxford (1610–11); dean of Gloucester (1616); bishop of St David’s (1621); bishop of Bath and Wells (1627); chancellor of Oxford University (1630–41); Privy Councillor (1627); committed to the Tower (1641); executed on false charges of treason and popery (1645); controversial figure in his lifetime and in the eyes of posterity: 109 n. b, 347, 374, 471 n. b

  Lauder, William (d. 1771), literary forger; contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine (j4j); claimed that Milton’s Paradise Lost was largely plagiarized from Jacobus Masenius; introduced to S.J. through Edward Cave; exposed by John Douglas as a forger for these claims; forgery had successfully duped Johnson into providing a preface and postscript: 12, 127 and n. a

  Lavater, JeanGaspard (1741–1801), Swiss divine: 1000 n. c

  Law, Dr Edmund (1703–87), bishop of Carlisle and theologian; appointed archdeacon of the diocese of Carlisle (1743); author ofEnquiry into the Ideas of Space and Time (1739) and Considerations of the State of the World with Regard to the Theory of Religion (1745); extreme critic of Newtonian natural theology; appointed to the bishopric of Carlisle (1768): 740 n. a

  Law, Dr John (1745–1810), bishop successively of Clonfert, Killaloe and Elphin: 748

  Law, Robert (fl. 1765), fellow of Trinity College, Dublin: 257

  Law, William (1686–1761), devotional writer and Nonjuror; author of A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection (1726) and A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729); thinking largely indebted to Bohme; drew on mystical sources that made him suspect to Calvinists and in opposition to the likes of John Wesley andS.J.: 43, 324–5, 922 n. b, 926, 936, 1068 n. 1167

  Lawrence, Dr Thomas (1711–83), physician; fellow (1744) then president (1767, re-elected for seven consecutive years) of the Royal College of Physicians; friend of, and physician to, S.J.; author of De natura musculorum (1759); wrote a biography of Harvey (1766): 49, 175, 421 and n. a, 530, 569, 587, 750, 759, 802, 840, 844, 845 n. b, 889, 960

  Lawrence, Elizabeth (d. 1790), daughter of Dr Thomas Lawrence: 49, 844

  Lawrence, Revd Charles (d. i79i), son of Dr Thomas Lawrence: 759, 1059 n. 937

  Lawrence, William Chauncy (d. 1783), advocate to the East India Company and son of Dr Thomas Lawrence: 802

  Layer, Christopher (1683–1723), lawyer and Jacobite conspirator; hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn: 91

  Lea, Revd Samuel (d. 1773), headmaster of Newport (Shropshire) Grammar School: 32

  Le Clerc, Jean (1657–1736), critic, theologian and man of letters: 155

  Lee, Alderman William (1739–95), London merchant and American diplomat: 560

  Lee, Arthur (1740–92), American diplomat: 555, 560

  Lee, John (1733–93), barrister and politician; committed Unitarian and close friend of Joseph Priestley; legal adviser to the Rockingham party;
recorder of Doncaster (1769); Solicitor-General (1782); Attorney General (1784); King’s Attorney General and Serjeant of the County Palatine of Lancaster (1782–93); friend of J.B.: 645

  Lee, Nathaniel (i653?-92), dramatist and poet; author of, among other plays, Theodosius; sometime inmate of Bedlam; died in the street: 516

  Leeds, Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of (1751–99), politician; lord of the bedchamber (1776-7); Lord Chamberlain of the Queen’s household (1777–80); Privy Councillor (1777); Lord Lieutenant of East Riding (1778–80); Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1783–91); knight of the Garter (1790): 252, 282 n. a

  Leeds, Mr, grammarian: 59

  Leeds, Thomas Osborne, 4th Duke of (1713–89): 769–70 andn. a

  le Fleming, Sir Michael, see Fleming, Sir Michael le

  Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716), German philosopher: 80, 343

  Leicester, Mr, Beauclerk’s relation, see Leycester, George

  Leland, Councillor (fl. 1778), Irish barrister and son of the historian: 695

  Leland, Dr Thomas (1722–85), historian and Church of Ireland clergyman; professor of history (1761) then oratory (1762) at Trinity College, Dublin; chaplain to Lord Townshend (1768); author of aHistory of Ireland(1773) and Sermons on Various Subjects (1788): 257, 397, 581, 691

  Lennox, Charlotte (1720–1804), novelist and writer; lifelong friend of S.J. after her first novel, Harriot Stuart (1750), had attracted his attention; best known for The Female Quixote (1752); compiled and edited Shakespeare Illustrated (1753-4); American scenes in Harriot Stuart and Euphemia (1790) earned her the title of‘the first American novelist’: 12, 14,16, 139,167, 185,196, 417,768, 915

  Le Roy, Julien (1686–1759), confused by S.J. with his elder son Pierre: 471

  LeRoy, Pierre (1717–85), French horologist: 471

  Leslie (or Lesley), John (1527–96), bishop of Ross (1566), historian and conspirator; parson, canon and prebendary of Oyne (1559); chief adviser on ecclesiastical affairs to Mary, queen of Scots; forced into exile; author of a vernacular History of Scotland (1570): 407

  Leslie (or Lesley), Revd Charles (1650–1722), Nonjuring Church of Ireland clergyman; Tory; served as a primary conduit of information between the Nonjuring community in England and the Stuart court in the 1690s; published a bi-weekly newspaper, The Rehearsal (1704-9); Jacobite agent (by 1711); author of The Case of the Regale, and the Pontificate Stated (1700), The Finishing Stroke (1711) and Short Method with the Deists (1694): 922 n. b

  Lettsom, Dr John Coakley (1744–1815), physician and philanthropist; correspondents included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Erasmus Darwin; lifelong Quaker; author of The Natural History of the Tea Tree (1772); co-founder of the General Dispensary in Aldersgate Street (1770); co-founder of the Royal Humane Society (1774); co-founder of the Medical Society of London (1773): 555

  Lever, Sir Ashton (1729–88), natural history collector; fellow of the Royal Society (1773); opened a museum or Holophusikon in Leicester House, Leicester Square, to display his famous collection; knighted (1778); lost his collection to debt: 947

  LevesonGower, Hon. Mrs (Frances Boscawen) (b. 1746), ‘Mrs. Lewson’: 753

  Levett, Levet, or Levit, Robert (1705–82), surgeon and apothecary; member of S.J.’s household from 1756 to 1782; regarded highly by S.J., ‘a very useful, and very blameless man’; subject of S.J.’s moving elegy, ‘On the Death of Dr Robert Levet’; never licensed as a physician: 133, 134, 198, 203, 221, 230, 263, 374, 412, 466, 474, 530, 532, 547, 569 and n. a, 642 and n. b, 697, 720, 722, 725, 814, 840, 841, 843, 844, 846, 856, 891, 895, 904, 915 n.a

  Levett, Theophilius (1693–1746), town clerk of Lichfield: 48, 93

  Lewis XIV (1638–1715), king of France: 72, 284, 351, 470, 473, 705, 1022 n. 54

  Lewis XVI (1754–93), king of France: 472, 473

  Lewis, David (1683?–1769), poet; published Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands(1726);inliterary contact with Pope; authorofthe playPhilip of Macedon (1727); contribution to Savage’s Collection of Pieces on Occasion of ‘The Dunciad’ (1732) Praised by Johnson and appreciated byPope: 933–4

  Lewis, Mrs (Charlotte Cotterell), wife of Revd John Lewis: 203

  Lewis, Revd Francis (fl. 1750): 125

  Lewis, Revd John (c.1717–83), dean of Ossory: 203

  Lewson, Mrs, seeLeveson Gower, Hon. Mrs

  Leycester, George (c.1733–1809), of Toft: 751

  Lichfield, George Henry Lee, 3rd Earl of (1718–72), chancellor of Oxford University: 690

  Liddell, Sir Henry George (1749–91), 5th Baronet of Ravensworth: 350 n. a

  Lilly, William (1602–81), astrologer; author of Christian Astrology (1647), the first major astrological textbook in the English language; leading figure in the Society of Astrologers (1649–58); apparently foresaw the Great Fire of London; produced the almanac Merlini Anglici Ephemeris(1647–81): 616

  Lincoln, bishop of, see Green, DrJohn

  Linda, Lucas de (d. 1660), Polish writer and state official: 303

  Linley, Elizabeth Ann (1754–92), singer and writer; daughter of the musician Thomas Linley; secretly ‘married’ R. B.Sheridan; contributed musically to Sheridan’s The Duenna (1775); became one of the leading politically active Whig women; singing career Suffocated by Sheridan: 458, 1041 n. 490

  Lintot, Barnaby Bernard (1675–1736), premier bookseller of the first third of the eighteenth century; regularly published plays performed at Drury Lane (1705– 12); publication of Miscellaneous Poems and Translations included the first ver-sionofPope’sThe Rape of the Lock(1712); continuedto publish importantfirst editions of Pope and Gay; fell out with Pope over the translation ofThe Odyssey; attacked in The Dunciad: 60, 330n. a

  Lintot, Henry (1703–58), bookseller; son of Bernard Lintot; inherited his father’s literary copyrights but did little to expand the enterprise other than buying the copyright to The Dunciad when it became available; law printer to the King (1749): 230

  Liverpool, 1st Earl of, see Jenkinson, Charles

  Livy, Titus Livius (59 bc–ad 17), the greatest Roman historian, whose Ab Urbe Conditatoldthe storyofRome From its founding in142 books, nearlyfour-fifths of which have not survived: 445

  Llandaff, bishop of, see Watson, Dr Richard

  Lloyd, Mrs: 99

  Lloyd, Mrs Sampson (1745–1814), wife of Sampson Lloyd: 508–9

  Lloyd, Olivia (Mrs Kirton) (1707–75): 54

  Lloyd, Robert (1733–64), poet and playwright; author of poetic epistle The Actor (1760); poetry reviewer for the Monthly Review; founder editor of the St James’s Magazine (1762); friend of Cowper, Colman, Garrick and Churchill; arrested for debt and died in Fleet prison: 210, 442

  Lloyd, Sampson (1728–1807), Quaker; founder of Lloyds Bank: 508–9

  Lobo, Father Jerome (1595–1678), Portuguese Jesuit missionary: 10, 51, 522

  Locke, John (1632–1704), philosopher; tutor at Christ Church, Oxford (1661-7); fellow of the Royal Society (1668); author of Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and colossus of empiricism; campaigner for the liberty of the press and religious toleration: 114, 163,357, 717, 821

  Locke, William (1732–1810), of Norbury Park, art connoisseur and patron; generous host to French emigres; lifelong friend of Fanny Burney: 786

  Lockhart, Alexander, see Covington, Alexander Lockhart, Lord

  Lockman, John (1698–1771), author and translator; translated Voltaire’s La Henriade (1732); part of the team that compiled the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical (1734–41); produced Rosalinda, a musical drama with music by John Christopher Smith (1740): 766 andn. a

  Lofft, Capell (1751–1824), radical editor and writer; Unitarian; edited Paradise Lost (1792) and Virgil’s Georgics (1803); close associate of Coleridge and Haz-litt; opponent of Pitt the younger; warm admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte; met Boswell and Johnson in 1784: 917

  Lombe, John (1693?–1722), half-brother of Sir Thomas Lombe, merchant and inventor of silk-throwing machinery; apprenticed to his brother: 611r />
  London, bishop of (1777–87), see Lowth, Dr Robert; (1787–1809), see Porteus, Dr Beilby

  Long, Dudley (afterwards North) (1748–1829), politician; MP for St Germans (1780); introduced to S.J. in 1781; member of the Whig Club (1785); a manager of Warren Hastings’s impeachment; MP for Banbury (1808); patron of George Crabb; pallbearer at Edmund Burke’s funeral; mourner at Sir Joshua Reynold’s funeral; popular member of literary and political circles: 805, 809

  Longlands, Mr (fl. 1772), London solicitor: 359

  Longley, John (d. 1822), recorder of Rochester: 767

  Longman, Messrs, London booksellers: 104

  Lort, Dr Michael (1725–90): 924 n. b

  Loudoun, John Campbell, 4th Earl of (1705–82), soldier: 585

  Loudoun, James Mure Campbell, 5th Earl of: 585

  Loughborough, Alexander Wedderburne, 1st Baron, afterwards ist Earl of Rosslyn (1733–1805), Lord Chancellor (1793); member of the Select Society; King’s counsel (1763); Attorney General (1778); Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas (1780); legal advice to Pitt on Catholic emancipation brought about the collapse of the ministry; personally loyal to King George III rather than any party: 199, 200, 202, 205, 206, 462, 520

  Louis XIV, XVI, see Lewis

  Lovat, Simon Fraser, 11th Baron (1667?–1747), Jacobite: 103

  Love, James (1721–74), actor and writer; author of aheroicpoem, ‘Cricket’ (1740); performed in Ireland and Scotland with his partner, ‘Mrs Love’; manager of the Canongate Theatre, Edinburgh (1759); migrated to Drury Lane (1762), making his debut as Falstaff; opened a new theatre in Richmond (1765): 345

  Loveday, Dr John (1711–89), antiquary and traveller; youthful member of Hearne’s antiquarian circle at Oxford; published for the Gentleman’s Magazine under pseudonyms: 399 n. a

  Loveday, John (1742–1809), scholar: 399 n. a