JOHNSTON, JOHN [SSNE 5939]

Surname

JOHNSTON, DZIONSTON, JONSTONUS, JOHNSON

First name

JOHN, JAN, JOANNES

Title/rank

DR

Nationality

SCOT

Text source

Dr John Johnston (1603-1675) became something of a famous physician in Poland-Lithuania. After leaving Torun/Thorn to study philosophy, theology and Hebrew at St Andrews University in Scotland. On his return to Poland he became tutor to children of the Polish nobility and accompanied them around Germany, the Dutch Republic and Britain. He gained doctoral degrees at Leiden in both medicine and philosophy. Back in Poland Johnstone settled in Lesno where, among other things, he became municipal doctor. He studied a wide variety of topics covering theology, ethics, philosophy, history, didactics and pedagogy. Indeed, in addition to his medical works, he wrote several theologiacal tracts published within the commonwealth and in Amsterdam. He was offered university chairs at Deventer, Frankfurt an der Oder, Heidelberg and Leiden, but turned them all down. It was possibly he who was amongst the Scots and English in Zakrocyzm who subscribed to the subsidy for King Charles II in 1651. Certainly a John Johnston and eleven others paid 329 florins in total

A.B. Pernal and R.P. Gasse, The 1651 Polish Subsidy to the exiled Charles II, Oxford Slavonic Papers, vol xxxii (Oxford, 1999), p.32; Z. Guldon and L. Stepkowski, Szkoci i Anglicy w Koronie w polowie XVII wieku, Kieleckie Studia Historyczne, ii (1977); A. Bieganska, The Learned Scots in Poland (From the Mid-Sixteenth to the close of the Eighteenth Century) in 'Canadian Slavonic Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1, March 2001, pp.7, 14-15.

Service record

PRUSSIA, POLAND-LITHUANIA, THORN/TORUN

Arrived 1604-01-01

Departed 1619-12-31

Purpose MISC.

SCOTLAND, ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY

Arrived 1620-01-01

Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC

POLAND-LITHUANIA, LESZNO, ZAKROCZYM

Arrived 1651-01-01

Departed 1675-12-31

Capacity PHYSICIAN, MEDICAL DOCTOR, THEOLOGIAN, purpose MEDICAL DOCTOR, ECCLESIASTICAL