The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Nathaniel Johnston (1627 - 1705)

Alias Nathaniel Johnson (Alias)

Medical doctor, political theorist and antiquary. He might was also a collector of naturalia. He reported to Lister, who in turn reported in a letter published in the Philosophical Transaction, on "some Stones of a perfect Gold-colour, found in Animals" (9). These stones were brought to Johnston by one Thomas Capidge, a butcher in Pomphret (Pontefract), who extracted them from the bladder of an ox. Lister reports, "I do not question ... but he [Johnston] hath store of these guilt stones in his cabinet, for, as I remember [Lister is writing two years after the fact], he was so choice of them, that the parcel he sent me to view, was order'd to be returned again: at least, none of them remained with me" (10). Collector (minor)
Correspondent
 Relevant locations: Owned cabinet of Nathaniel Johnston, Pontefract
Residence at London, England
Residence at Pontefract, Wakefield
 Relationships: Nathaniel Johnston was a correspondent of Martin Lister (12 Apr 1639-2 Feb 1712)
Nathaniel Johnston was a member of Royal College of Physicians (1518-)
Nathaniel Johnston was a correspondent of Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725)

Francis White (-) was a associate or acquaintance (general) of Nathaniel Johnston
Linked manuscript items: as Recipient - "[A note of acquisition]," Yorkshire Archaeological Society MS19, Leeds
 Linked print sources: as Author (in assoc. with a ms or print source) - An observation of Dr. Johnstons of Pomphret, communicated by him to Mr. Lister, and by him sent in a letter to the publisher, concerning some stones of a perfect gold-colour, found in animals.
 References in Documents:
Selections from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1665-1669)

THatThat no page of his Letter may be empty (saith Mr. Lister) I shall transcribe for you an Observation of Dr. Johnstons. In the German Philosophic Ephemerides of the year 1672, I meet with these words of Doctor Wedelius, Obs. 246. pag 439. Possideo particulam Calculi vaccini, instar Auri foliorum fulgidi; the subject of that Observation being an Enumeration and the Description of several Stones found in divers Animals, as in Doggs, Hoggs, Staggs, and in Cows also; of which last the now quoted words are all he saith. I do begg Dr. Johnstons pardon for having kept by me two years an Observation of this nature, which he was pleased to communicate to me, and which yet was so surprising, that I had not the assurance to offer it to you, being in this as well as in all other matters, relating to the phoenomena of Natural History, very diffident. What reasons I then had to doubt of the truth of this Observation, he best knows, and I shall not trouble you with; being a little more confident since I read the words of D. Wedelius, that the Stones sent me by the Learned Doctor were such indeed, and not some Insects Eggs, as I once did verily perswade my self they were.

Selections from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1665-1669)

THatThat no page of his Letter may be empty (saith Mr. Lister) I shall transcribe for you an Observation of Dr. Johnstons. In the German Philosophic Ephemerides of the year 1672, I meet with these words of Doctor Wedelius, Obs. 246. pag 439. Possideo particulam Calculi vaccini, instar Auri foliorum fulgidi; the subject of that Observation being an Enumeration and the Description of several Stones found in divers Animals, as in Doggs, Hoggs, Staggs, and in Cows also; of which last the now quoted words are all he saith. I do begg Dr. Johnstons pardon for having kept by me two years an Observation of this nature, which he was pleased to communicate to me, and which yet was so surprising, that I had not the assurance to offer it to you, being in this as well as in all other matters, relating to the phoenomena of Natural History, very diffident. What reasons I then had to doubt of the truth of this Observation, he best knows, and I shall not trouble you with; being a little more confident since I read the words of D. Wedelius, that the Stones sent me by the Learned Doctor were such indeed, and not some Insects Eggs, as I once did verily perswade my self they were.

Selections from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1665-1669)

Thus far the Doctor. I do not question (so concludes Mr. Lister,) but he hath store of these guilt stones in his cabinet, for, as I remember, he was so choice of them, that the parcel he sent me to view, was order’d to be returned again: at least, none of them remained with me.