Johnson, Richard, 1573-1659?

found: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, viewed 19 July 2016(Johnson, Richard (fl. 1592-1622), writer, is an obscure figure; no record has yet been found of his birth or death. J. P. Collier referred to a baptismal record dated 24 May 1573 but he neither located that record nor explained how he identified it as relating to the writer rather than any other Richard Johnson; sparse personal references in Johnson's books tell what little is known of him; in 1592 he was 'a poore prentice'; by 1603 'a poore freeman' of the city of London; on 22 November 1608 and 22 May 1616 he dated reprints of The Seaven Champions of Christendome 'from my house at London'; Johnson's writings fall into three groups: prose narratives; collections of ballads and jests of which he was as much compiler as author; and elegies and topical pamphlets; Johnson's name makes its final appearance in the Stationers' register in an entry, on 31 January 1622; it must be presumed that near this date he either died or abandoned the attempt to make his living by his pen)