He was born about the year 1761. His parents were Friends. His father, William Johnson, a native of Ireland, emigrated to this country about 1747. He married Ruth Potts, of Trenton. Thomas was their second child. When he was quite small the family removed to Charleston, S. C., where the father established a flourishing boarding-school and gained much repute by his lectures on various branches of Natural Philosophy. His fondness for such studies seemed to have been inherited by the son, who even in his later years continued to turn his attention to them. The father died in the South, after a residence of some years there. The mother, with five children, returned to her native state, and with the aid of her brother opened a store in Trenton. There Thomas was placed an apprentice to a carpenter[3] and joiner. After following this business some time he was compelled, by a rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs, to abandon it. He then engaged in teaching in Hunterdom County and afterwards in Bucks County, Pa.—later then in Philadelphia. For this profession he had rare qualifications. Few men had such powers of communication; few could so simplify truth, and throw an interest around it to captivate the youthful mind. Footnote 3: The annexed anecdote was communicated to the compiler by a resident of Trenton: At one of the neighboring courts a dispute arose between Johnson and his opponent respecting a point of law, during which the latter remarked in a taunting, derisive manner, “That he was not to be taught law by a carpenter.” “May it please your honors,” replied Mr. Johnson, “the gentleman has been pleased to allude to my having been a carpenter. True, I was a carpenter. I am proud of it. So was our Lord and Saviour. And I could yet, given a block of wood, a mallet and a chisel, hew something that would very much resemble that gentleman’s head. True, I could not put in brains, but it would have more manners.”