Francis Johnson: Another Trailblazer

 

Francis Johnson

Another Trailblazer

 

Clarksonville Baptist Church

An excerpt of the report that Joshua Tinson, president of Calabar Theological Institution, sent to the BMS Committee in 1848, gives us a hint of who Francis Johnson was and the sort of students among whom he was prepared for the ministry. Tinson wrote:

“During the past year, one of the students, Mr. Francis Johnson, received and accepted a unanimous invitation to settle over a church at Clarkson Ville, in the parish of St. Ann. Mr. Johnson was ordained in January last, at Brown’s Town, where he was formerly a member. And it is with much pleasure the Committee refer to the fact, that the deputation from the Baptist Missionary Society in England, the Rev. Messrs. Angus and Birrell, were present and took part in the service on that occasion. The satisfaction felt by our friends may be seen in the opinion expressed after their return, at the annual meeting of the Society, held in London, on the 29th of April last. The number of students now in the Institution is seven. They are men of sterling piety and fair promise, and their conduct during the past year has been characterized by educational diligence and domestic harmony” (Missionary Herald, 1848, p. 115].

 

Francis Johnson from Brown’s Town, St Ann, was one of the first Jamaica-born Black men to be  a candidate for the Baptist ministry. He had become a Christian under the ministry of John Clark and, in 1844, he was admitted to Calabar College for ministerial formation. He belonged to the second batch of men to study at the new Calabar Institution in Rio Bueno, Trelawny, under the leadership of Joshua Tinson.

 

After spending three years at Calabar, Johnson was ordained to the Christian ministry at his home church and assumed responsibility for the pastorate at Clarksonville and Mt. Zion churches, both of which had John Clark as their founding pastor in 1839.

 

Clarksonville was a Free Village established by John Clark, former pastor of Brown’s Town Baptist Church. Clark organized the community called Castleton into a “Free Village,” and named it in honour of anti-slave trade champion, Thomas Clarkson. Clark established a Baptist church in the community in 1838. For perspectives on the Baptist Church in Clarksonville in southern St. Ann, watch the following Youtube Videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaSmnAi1_Wg and www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7JkzRwqxFo.

 

Johnson started his ministry in Clarksonville in 1847. On September 19, 1883, Johnson and Mary Jane Richards were joined in holy matrimony at Gordon Castle, Easington, in St Thomas. Among the children of the union were a daughter, Olivia and a son, Amos. Olivia, became a pastor’s wife. She was united in marriage with Edwin Palmer, who served first at Staceyville Baptist Church and then at Hanover Street Baptist Church. Amos became a pastor and served in Missouri, USA. Amos assisted his brother-in-law at Hanover Street during Edwin Palmer’s eight months of ill health preceding Palmer’s death.

 

From time to time, Johnson had distinguished persons visiting him in Clarksonville. In 1862, after his visit to Johnson at Clarksonville, BMS Secretary Edward Underhill, who was on a tour of Jamaica, wrote: “Passing through Bethany, I first reached the station of the Rev F. Johnson at Clarksonville. The whole route was through settlements of enfranchised population, amid pimento walks, coffee plantations, and provision grounds. Neat houses and cottages peeped out among the dark foliage of mango trees or the broad-leafed banana, in every direction, the abodes of a prosperous and contented peasantry. Leaving Clarksonville, under the guidance of its excellent native minister, I continued my journey to Mount Zion, where a meeting of the people awaited me.”

 

Johnson, whom Underhill described as “an excellent native minister” spent his years of ministry in southern St Ann and offered a steady hand of leadership to the communities he served. In 1850, he started the Baptist Church at John’s Hall in Clarendon.

 

After his pastoral ministry came to an end, Johnson went to live in Kingston and, when he died in 1887, Edwin Palmer, his son-in-law, officiated at his funeral at Hanover Street Baptist Church.