Henry Johnson (25 December 1806 – 12 June 1910) was a British
acrobat
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...
,
equestrian gymnast, and
tightrope walker
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...
for Hughes' and Sanger's
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
es in the early 19th century.
He was orphaned at a young age, and started life in poverty, however by his early twenties he had performed before the
Emperor of China
''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...
. After leaving the circuses and teaming up with Mullaba the Chinese Juggler, he performed privately by Royal Command for
William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
. As a solo act, he performed for
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
several times, and again for the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(later
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
).
At the beginning of the 20th century he was fêted and interviewed as a
centenarian
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100 years, the term is invariably associated with longevity. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living cente ...
in
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
,
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, where he had settled with his wife and daughter. Those interviews give an insight into the life of a circus and street performer of the early 19th century.
Background
Henry Johnson "had no recollection of his parents who died when he was an infant".
He informed interviewers that he was born at St Mary's,
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, on 25 December 1806. When he was two years old, his father died and his family struggled to survive, eating
swedes from the fields because they could not afford bread. He had a brother who was an
ostler.
Johnson remembered the arrival of news of the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
in 1815:
First the news was that we had lost and then had won, and then again had lost, and people were almost crazy with excitement, because they said that Bony ( Bonaparte) would come and make slaves of us, and mothers used to frighten naughty children by saying, ''If you don't keep quiet I'll let Bony-part have ye!'' There was no telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
in those days, and the news was brought from the coast by couriers, and it used to be said that the false news was made by some people just to make some money before the truth became known.
Johnson married Mary Ann (
Brightlingsea
Brightlingsea is a coastal town and an electoral ward in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a popu ...
1826 – Grantham 1906),
and they had at least one child, a daughter.
Around 1866 Johnson and his wife moved to a "small tenement ... with a combined sitting and bedroom on the ground floor" at 6 New Street,
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
,
but he continued to travel the country until 1885. Until around 1905 he was "a noted pedestrian, occasionally indulging in a ramble".
At his 100th birthday he received a congratulatory letter from Edward VII via
Lord Knollys
Viscount Knollys (), of Caversham in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1911 for the court official Francis Knollys, 1st Baron Knollys, Private Secretary to the Sovereign from 1901 to 191 ...
.
Soon after his centenary, Johnson was invited by William Lee, the Mayor of Grantham, to his "dinner to old folks ...
ohnson'sarrival was duly announced, and a cheer was given as the old fellow slowly walked, but without assistance to his seat".
Following Johnson's 101st birthday, the ''Sporting Times'' noted with wry humour, "That is the worst of those dangerous professions. The people who practise them so frequently escape accidents". Johnson said that he did not like cigarettes, that he smoked a pipe, and that he "never was a teetotaller".
At the age of 102, Johnson was living in James Street, Grantham (James Street was demolished in 1937 and 1960). In his last years, Johnson lived with his daughter Mrs Bullimore who was a lodging-house keeper.
By that time, he was in receipt of parish support of six shillings () per week.
Johnson remained fit enough to "walk about the streets" until the final two weeks of his life. He died in Grantham on 12 June 1910, aged 103.
Career
Skill preparation
Johnson "took to horses from his infancy". He was encouraged to become a
jockey
A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...
, but he was more interested in imitating the
gymnastic
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoul ...
street-entertainers in Norwich
market place
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
:
In the streets he had seen travelling gymnasts with their carpets, and he believed that he could himself manage such performances. Accordingly he had ''laid himself out'' for the business and, as he remarked, ''came in for a great deal of punishment, cricking his back and so forth'', but he triumphed.
In Johnson's youth, circuses were mainly strolling street-players, often treated as vagabonds. Sometimes
pedlars would work alongside a very small street circus, so as to attract trade. However, there were some circus troupes which included highly skilled performers. Circus performers of Johnson's travelling generation were no less able than the well-paid late-nineteenth century celebrity circus performers, but the life of the earlier circus generation was hard and they often went hungry.
Occupation
![Sangers Circus equestrian acrobats](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Sangers_Circus_equestrian_acrobats.jpg)
Johnson's rambling responses to interview questions gave rise to the publication of several contradictory versions of his career. Here is one:
Although I always liked horses, I didn't merely want to drive other people. I wanted to drive 'em myself. So I managed to get in with a small travelling circus, and before my bones were set they made an acrobat of me. When I was about 12 or 14 I joined Sanger's Circus, and from them I went to Hughes' Circus. It was with Hughes' Circus that I went out to China. There was a juggler among us, but the Chinese didn't think much of him. There wasn't anything he could teach them, you see. But it was different with me. They couldn't do what I could do ... Well, I was an all round gymnast, I reckon, and I could stand on my head on a pole, do somersaults on a horse, and do somersaults blindfolded, too.
A second version of Johnson's early career is as follows. Having "a desire to travel the country", Johnson joined Hughes' Wild Beast Show and Circus, and was a "fully-qualified member of the equestrian staff" by the age of fourteen years. By the time the show visited
Pekin,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, he was earning £4 per week ().
When his wage was cut by one quarter, he left Hughes' Wild Beast Show and joined Sanger's Circus.
A third version of the story says that he first joined the original Sanger's Circus at age six (working for the father of
Lord George Sanger
'Lord' George Sanger (23 December 1825 – 28 November 1911) was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nin ...
), and worked for Sanger for eight years,
then at the age of fourteen joined Hughes' Circus at
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
*Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...
, and that it was with Hughes' Circus that he performed in Pekin. Johnson said, "I was an all-round gymnast, as I reckoned, a rope walker, and an equestrian. Barebacked I could do pretty well anything".
After leaving the circus in 1828,
and returning from Pekin to Durham, Johnson formed an independent partnership in 1830 with Pat Feeney who was known as Mullaba the Chinese
Juggler
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...
or Old Malabar, and that association lasted until 1862. It ended, as Johnson said, "because we couldn't agree".
After that, he worked solo. Johnson followed his acrobatic career for over seventy years in total,
working ultimately as a street performer, and retiring in 1892.
Johnson assisted at the "huge" 1838
Coronation Fair at
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Pa ...
,
in celebration of Queen Victoria's accession: "All ''showdom'' was there":
As the boom of distant guns announced the departure of the young Queen for Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
the showmen struck their gongs and unfurled their cloths, while the keepers of the booths
Booths is a chain of high-end supermarkets in Northern England. Most of its branches are in Lancashire, but there are also branches in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. It has been described as the "Wait ...
and stalls rolled up their canvas fronts and commenced operations. The theatre in the park played ''Benjamin Bowbell'' or the ''Illustrious Stranger'' many hundreds of times ... The fair asopen for several consecutive weeks ... A pot of beer rose to a shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
and a penny loaf to sixpence ... Those were the days of the fat giantesses, the fair Circassians
The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia in ...
, the Hottentot Venus
Sarah Baartman (; 1789– 29 December 1815), also spelt Sara, sometimes in the diminutive form Saartje (), or Saartjie, and Bartman, Bartmann, was a Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe under the n ...
, the dwarfs, the living skeletons, the two-headed boys, the performing pig, the fortune-telling horse. People had never dreamed of a variety programme in a veritable palace, and even the gentry patronised the booth.
Johnson saw gratuitous cruelty to animals by certain circus performers. In the performance of the challenging
Tuppence More and Up Goes the Donkey, a skilled performer would tie a donkey to the top of a ladder, offer to balance it on high, and refuse to perform the feat until the audience had given him "tuppence more", i.e. more money. However, in the 1830s
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
's mother the
Duchess of Kent
Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...
ordered the performance of this feat to "cease immediately".
The most that an acrobat could earn n the 1830swas a few shillings a week, or if he was particularly brilliant, a few pounds. y 1900a smart acrobat or juggler ascapable of commanding as much money a week as his predecessors did in half a year or more.
Performing for royalty
![Emperor Daoguang Sitting in Garden](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Emperor_Daoguang_Sitting_in_Garden.JPG)
In Pekin, around 1828, Johnson performed with Hughes' Circus for the
Daoguang Emperor
The Daoguang Emperor (; 16 September 1782 – 26 February 1850), also known by his temple name Emperor Xuanxong of Qing, born Mianning, was the seventh Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning ...
,
Emperor of China
''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...
.
Johnson was "famous" as a young man.
In 1830, he performed in
Aylesbury
Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...
with Pat Feeney (Mullaba) for
Baron Rothschild
Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish memb ...
and
William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
.
The day after that, the pair performed by Royal Command for William IV, on a temporary stage on the lawn of
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
.
Johnson said:
His Majesty was so delighted with my partner and myself, what with Mullaba's juggling and my gymnastics, that he ordered the pair of us to go to Buckingham Palace. There was no railway then. We had to go by coach – that is, the king and ourselves, His Majesty, of course, riding inside. There were plenty of highwaymen
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
in those days, but we hadn't even an outrider, though perhaps there was an escort behind. However we had no trouble. At Buckingham Palace there was a large stage erected for Mullaba and myself, and two bands were present. There would be about a hundred great people in the audience. Mullaba and I did well, though I say it, and His Majesty gave us fifty guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
s each (), and a licence to perform anywhere we wanted in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, at any market town or fair. My licence got burned in a fire at Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...
.
The fire was possibly the extensive Colchester High Street fire of 24 December 1834. Johnson performed as a solo act for Queen Victoria before and after her coronation.
He said:
I had my carpet outside the Royal Hotel at Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...
when the Duchess of Kent
Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom ...
came down to me with the Princess Victoria and gave me £10 (). Of course I never could juggle. I never went in for it. My business was always gymnastics. To call public attention I had a small drum and pipes, which were my orchestra. But the Duchess of Kent and her late Majesty were delighted with my performances, and that was enough for me ... I have seen the late Queen many times since, and performed before her at Epsom
Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...
and elsewhere. On one occasion she sent me a couple of sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
s.
Johnson performed for
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
(when
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
) at
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a estate ...
in the 1860s,
or according to another version, around 1875.
"It was at a dinner to the Royal tenantry when Johnson
laimedto have danced a hornpipe on his head upon glasses supported by barrels".
Mullaba the Chinese Juggler
Patrick Feeney, known as Mullaba, Malabar or Old Malabar, was the son of "decent, working people". He was born in
Sligo
Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, on 16 March 1800, and was trained by the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
-
Tartar
Tartar may refer to:
Places
* Tartar (river), a river in Azerbaijan
* Tartar, Switzerland, a village in the Grisons
* Tərtər, capital of Tartar District, Azerbaijan
* Tartar District, Azerbaijan
* Tartar Island, South Shetland Islands, Ant ...
juggler Chu Chan.
Lord George Sanger recalled seeing "American Malabar" doing the Tuppence More trick with a donkey at the Hyde Park Fair of 1838. In 1910 the circus performer Edward Pablo recalled seeing Malabar in 1880, "walking about the streets
f Glasgow">Glasgow.html" ;"title="f Glasgow">f Glasgowrigged up in his old Chinese dress", although he did not remember Henry Johnson. Another report says that Malabar first performed in his own booth at the
Border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
and Edinburgh">Selkirk, Scottish Borders">Selkirk and Edinburgh, until around 1878. Malabar was a "big, strong man, with a huge voice ... He was a ''wyse-like man'', with strong features". He had once hired Lord George Sanger as a young man to ''patter'' (or attract trade) and to take part in the performance. Malabar was tall;
he was a "tall, commanding figure, in gaudy robes".
His tricks included catching a ball in a cup attached to his forehead, and swallowing an sword. However, Malabar did have issues with alcohol, according to Lord George Sanger, who was dropped on top of the crowd by a drunken Malabar on one occasion.
In old age he was mocked for boasting that he had performed before kings, but Johnson's interviews confirm that he performed before William IV.
His wife assisted him at his sideshows, and died around 1872. "The last appearance of Malabar in public was on the occasion of the great procession at the laying of the foundation of the
on 6 October 1883. Feeney died in Glasgow, on 13 November 1883.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Henry (acrobat)
19th-century English people
1806 births
1910 deaths
Acrobats
People from Grantham
British circus performers
Sideshows
Trick riding
English centenarians